Smoke bans have not closed bars

SIR - Why does Andy Butterworth (T&A, February 27) equate non-smokers with snobbery? How out of touch he must be to state non-smokers visit pubs only four times a year. Where's his evidence?

I haven't smoked since 1969 and have been a regular real ale drinker considerably more than four times a year since.

I hate smoke, I hate the smell it leaves on my clothes. I remember lots of people killed by cigarette smoke. Passive smoke kills - look at the evidence!

Total smoking bans in Australia, New York and even Dublin have not closed bars.

Perhaps he should visit Bradford's only totally non-smoking pubs - The Symposium (Idle) and The Bar t'at (Ilkley). Since their total bans, the atmosphere is clean and their business has increased.

Beer and fags do not have to go together.

Latest evidence suggests only 20 per cent of the population now smoke. Why should they be allowed to inflict their noxious habit on the 80 per cent who have the willpower to stop?

Dave Murgatroyd, Briarwood Drive, Bradford

Such a caring man

SIR - I have just returned from the funeral of a much-loved caretaker, Richard Sewell of Reevy Hill Primary School.

It was the best-supported funeral I have attended for a long time. For a change, the minister was audible and down to earth with a face that said I am doing the job I love.

The eulogy by headmistress Anne Plunkett was both informative and amusing because Richard was such a lovely man and with a dramatic but fun-loving sense of humour.

This was summed up by the photo on the front of the service sheet of him dressed as a charlady (a la Les Dawson) in one of his zany appearances at school functions.

He was always willing to go the "extra mile" for the sake of the school and the accent on his title was definitely on the care part of his name. He will long be remembered by the staff and children.

The church was full and the road outside resembled the funeral of Winston Churchill - it was wall to wall and chock-a-block with cars.

Farewell Richard - it was a privilege to know you.

Phil Boase, Elizabeth Street, Wyke

Political tactics?

SIR - I cannot let UKIP's Jason Smith get away with stating that his is the only party promising to restore full sovereignty and independence to the UK by leaving the EU ("Parties failing us", T&A Letters, February 10).

I have to point out that the Establishment appears suspiciously unconcerned at its appearance on the scene, suggesting that it is seen as something "safe" which can be "accommodated" with a few concessions.

Would the Establishment not be delighted to see the UKIP and the BNP engage in mutual antagonism, cancelling each other out - a tactic frequently reinforced, particularly at town and parish polls, by the intrusion of mysterious "independent anti-EU right-wingers?"

Councillor James Lewthwaite (Leader of BNP Group), City Hall, Bradford

A selective view

SIR - T Hill (T&A, February 21) presents a selective and favourable view on America's use of nuclear weapons at Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the following nuclear race between them and the Soviet Union.

In the first case, Japan had offered to surrender several weeks prior to America's use of nuclear bombs; and so America could have avoided needless deaths, but instead they decided to demonstrate to the Soviet Union their superior weaponry. Thus, the suggestion that it was necessary to bomb Japan to prevent "more deaths" doesn't stand up.

Secondly, it is unfair to place all the blame on the Soviet Union for pushing the world down the "nuclear path", as T. Hill puts it. Yes it may have been the case that America advised the Soviet Union to not produce nuclear weapons. However, the fact that America had no intention to renounce their own weapons and that the Soviet Union would be extremely vulnerable without a counterweight to America's prowess shows that it is nave to think the Soviet Union would have abandoned their attempts to produce the atom bomb simply because America had proposed that is what they should have done.

David Lawson 3 Altar Drive, Bradford

Time to fix it

SIR - So Margaret Eaton and her party (Conservative) propose a 4.45 per cent rise in council tax (T&A, February 15). Where does she and the other parties think senior citizens and people on fixed incomes get the money to pay for this above-inflation rise.

It's about time people who are on a fixed income had a fixed amount to pay and not have somebody nibbling away at what bit of money they have every year for second-rate services.

Michael Breen, Bolton Hall Road, Bradford 2

Come run with us

SIR - As Patron of Team Macmillan, I would like to invite your readers who are lucky enough to have already obtained a 2006 Flora London Marathon place via the marathon ballot to help raise £1 million for cancer care charity Macmillan Cancer Relief.

Team Macmillan raises vital funds for Macmillan who provide immediate practical and emotional support for people living with cancer. With more than one million people living with cancer in the UK, the need for Macmillan's services has never been greater.

So why not join the 700 runners of Team Macmillan at the 2006 Flora London Marathon? Their support is fantastic - you'll receive plenty of advice and motivation in the lead-up, as well as having hundreds of team-mates running alongside you, spurring you on!

For more information or to join Team Macmillan, please see www.macmillan.org.uk/londonmarathon, or tel: 020 7840 7878 or e-mail: londonmarathon@macmillan.org.uk.

Kelly Sotherton, Patron of Team Macmillan (Olympic Heptathlon Bronze Medallist, Athens 2004)

Don't bail 'em out

SIR - Education Bradford are asking for £1.5 million because they miscalculated on their sums. This is a private company. Once they put in a price they should not get any more money from the taxpayers.

The elderly are being told that charges for home care will go up. We think that any money should be put into care in the community. Too much money is going on education.

If Education Bradford cannot carry out their job, they should let children run it for them. They could not do any worse.

J R Smith (Retired Persons Action Group), Flawith Drive, Fagley.

We didn't get a say

SIR - I agree with what Phillip Davies said in his letter (T&A, February 21), but I do get very cross to be told that we voted to join the EEC. Edward Heath took us into the EEC without giving the people the luxury of a vote.

Harold Wilson gave us a vote to say if we wished to stay in or come out. This was very different to giving a vote before we joined.

David Kenyon, Grange Park Road, Cottingley

Worth copying

SIR - There are some good incentives about to help reduce the amount of climate-change gas emitted. Braintree Council in Essex give a council tax rebate of £100 to all houses that are properly insulated.

I hope that catches on locally and it could even be paired with adding £100 to the bill for all houses that have patio heaters.

Keith Thomson, Heights Lane, Bradford 9

A strong religion

SIR - I feel that Stewart Knowles (Letters, February 18) should, as a committed Christian, show that Christianity is strong enough and forgiving enough to allow free speech and the staging of Jerry Springer: The Opera, thus illustrating that it does not need the protection other religions seem to need.

P E Bird, Nab Wood Terrace, Shipley