Letters to the Editor

SIR - Another excellent letter from Kenneth A Webster (T&A, February 18) demanding that Maud Marshall and BCR cease hiding behind their increasingly dubious smokescreen of excuses and misinformation regarding the Odeon.

I would suggest the "extended" deadline for the three shortlisted designs is a desperate reaction to the recent acceleration of "Save The Odeon" media coverage (Scatter's Victoria cd , John Pennington's In My View column in the T&A and the supportive letters that followed). Is Maud hoping that it will have all blown over by March 31? Not a chance - this is only the beginning!

The seven female protesters on Prince's Way did a great job. We must maintain the momentum.

There was never a full survey of the entire building. ARUP only inspected the towers. The sad reality is the Odeon is an obstacle that needs to be removed to open up Bradford Beck for the "lake" that no-one appears to want.

The New Vic/Gaumont/Odeon served Bradford well for 70 years. We must repay the favour!

Mark Nicholson, Clayfield Drive, Bradford 7

l Maud Marshall, chief executive of Bradford Centre Regeneration, says: "The deadline for the Odeon design competition has been extended until March 31 as one of the three teams of architects and designers requested more time to work on their final submission. Bradford Centre Regeneration is committed to bringing the highest possible quality of design and architecture to the city and if this means allowing a little more time, then so be it. Too often in the past buildings were thrown up without due consideration and BCR is determined not to follow the same path.We understand the attachment that some people have to the building but would urge them to wait until the final submissions are made public before they make up their minds."

Unwanted swamp

SIR - The supreme guiding principle applied by both national and local governments in this first stage of the imposition of a Federal Europe is simple: "Whatever the people want, do the exact opposite". Its purpose is to reduce the population to a state of demoralised apathy in which everyone will say: "Voting's pointless, whoever's in power will ignore us and do whatever they like."

Because we love the way in which the Odeon building's domes complement those of the adjacent Alhambra, we want it preserved. So it will be destroyed.

We do not want Centenary Square replaced by a fetid swamp beside a great pool of filthy, stagnant water, replete with floating debris and sunken detritus, with children at risk from drowning while they poke long sticks into the rotting vegetation on the bottom to release the accumulated, flammable greenhouse gas, methane. So that is what we will get.

N A Shaw, Thornton Road, Thornton.

l EDITOR'S NOTE: We're not aware of any children drowning in the Tyrls or, for that matter, Lister Park. Our understanding is that the proposed lake would be on the site of the magistrates' court, not Centenary Square.

God strong enough

SIR - Thank God, I say, for the Rev Paul Flowers and his sensible remarks about Jerry Springer: The Opera. No doubt many of my fellow-Christians will attack him for his moderate views, but he is right: God is strong enough to withstand any attacks from the unbelieving or ignorant.

But is this show really as bad as is being made out? I made it a point to watch it on TV, because if I am going to attack something I want to know what I am attacking.

In fact, I was pleasantly surprised. Jesus doesn't come out badly from this show. Yes, he admits to being "a little bit gay", but then didn't Jesus identify with all us sinners, whatever our particular act of rebellion against his commandments?

Who does come out badly, in fact, is Jerry Springer and this whole trend of so-called "reality" TV, which portrays people as worthless. What it resembles, more than anything, is a medieval morality play.

Yes, it is offensive, but if it offends us perhaps we need to look more carefully about what it is saying about us. If the cap fits...or if we are without sin...

Karl Dallas, Church Green, Manningham

Free advertising

SIR - I have just been reading all the religious twaddle in protest at the showing of Jerry Springer: The Opera. When will these protesting fanatics realise that the more fuss they make, the more the show is being advertised - for free!

There is no such thing as bad publicity, and the show organisers will be sitting rubbing their hands at all the freebies being dished out by the protesters, saving them much money on the cost of advertising. The sensible thing to do would be to ignore the show altogether and simply stay away as I will be doing.

Of course these religious groups seem to think that, because they don't want to see the show, then no-one else has to see it either.

Judging by the amount of free publicity that this show has enjoyed thanks to the protests, the organisers are practically guaranteed a full house.

Frank Morris, Skipton Road, Utley

Cannabis dangers

SIR - Smoking tobacco has now been banned everywhere except parliamentary bars, yet the same parliamentarians refuse to recognise the significant harm from smoking cannabis.

We already know that head and neck cancers occur much sooner with cannabis smoking than with tobacco. This week we read that an American learned body finds cannabis smoking is implicated in bladder cancer. Research has been published by Martha K Terris at the Medical College of Georgia, USA.

Countless studies have appeared in recent newspapers describing psychosis and even schizophrenia where cannabis is once again implicated.

When will we wake up to these real dangers and give cannabis the bad name it deserves?

G W Davies, National Drug Prevention Alliance, Slough.

Weak Labour

SIR - What a pathetic PM we have! He asked what kind of message would we have been sending out to would-be terrorists if the "glorification of terrorism" had been left out of the relevant Act of Parliament.

He had already sent out a message to them when the police, although they had already the power which they used to arrest the one-eyed, hook-handed Muslim preacher, made no arrests after recent demonstrations.

They did not need the Bill to act there and then but failed to do so and sent out the message that to incite people to kill the "infidels" was quite within the law, which it wasn't and isn't.

New laws for the sake of publicity! What a weak government.

P E Bird, Nab Wood Terrace, Shipley

Depressing vision

SIR - When will Margaret Eaton and her executive committee waken up to reality regarding a rail link across Forster Square?

Unless action is taken now the ultimate result will be a bitter blow for Bradford. Its dead end position will make it vulnerable to become another district of Leeds, which will then become the Metropolis of the North.

Next will be the move towards Leeds Bradford Airport to become Leeds Airport. Next in line comes the loss of what was granted in 1907 (city status) - all to fit in perfectly with the EU plans for regionalisation.

A vision for the future - with thanks to the "powers that be" here in Bradford plus the powers granted to the unelected bureaucrats across the Channel in Brussels.

H Perry, Moore Avenue, Wibsey