I WONDER at which supermarket board room meeting some bright spark suggested replacing cashiers and tills with do-it-yourself machines.
I hate them. I can follow a complicated knitting pattern or recipe but these machines telling me ‘there is an unidentified object in the baggage area’ when I just put my purse down and hurrying me along when I am still looking for the right buttons and bar code gets me into a spin.
I recently asked an assistant for help and was told ‘we are not supposed to do it for you’. I don’t blame the assistant as she was carrying out orders, but it did get me thinking back to the days when the grocer in Almondbury walked down to Waterloo carrying a large basket with my mother’s weekly shopping. That was service.
The conversation with the assistant left me with the feeling that the supermarket was doing us a favour by letting us buy their goods and, in return, we had to put our goods through the till and pack and cash up ourselves.
Eventually when the new Tesco is built on Southgate and perhaps even an Asda on Chapel Hill the town centre will have been strangled. The supermarkets really will have the monopoly then.
My guess is that all the stores will be fully computerised and the staff dispensed with.
Who knows, the shopper may even have to do a bit of shelf filling before leaving.
Mrs N Clarke
Almondbury
Refreshing honesty
THANKS to the person who found my receipts and documents in Poundland, New Street, and posted them back to me.
It was so fantastic of you to do this, especially during the days when lots of people are not so honest. Thanks again.
H Barrowclough
Waterloo
Boxed in at Holmfirth
IS Holmfirth special? Yes it is! It’s the training ground for Kirklees traffic engineers.
Box junctions have now appeared in Huddersfield Road and Victoria Street at the traffic light junction. This is the third or fourth attempt to try and keep the traffic flowing smoothly.
I wonder what their next venture will be? Could we see Swindon-style magic roundabouts?
George Senior
Holmfirth
Backing police on plan
THERE has been much public interest in the application for a licence to open a new restaurant on Cross Church Street in Huddersfield town centre.
It may be there is this additional interest in a restaurant opening (or not) because although the police originally recommended that the licence application be turned down, Kirklees Council’s Planning Committee eventually made a decision to accept the application.
However, it is important to be clear that while the police were against the restaurant having a licence from 9am to 11.30pm seven days a week, they did not object when the opening hours were recommended to be changed.
Indeed, at the planning meeting I asked Sgt Mandy Mellor: “If the restaurant’s last serving was 9pm, with it closing at 10pm, would you still be objecting?’’
The answer was that the proposal would be fine because the town doesn’t get busy until after then. On the basis of this change in the police position I, at least, voted in favour of the licence.
I do not think that this change in opening times as the main factor in the decision was clearly expressed in the Examiner article about the planning application on March 9.
My decision on the Planning Committee was heavily based on the response of the police.
Had they expressed any doubt about the venture I would have voted against the application.
Clr Terry Lyons
Meltham
Sharing our grief
WE understand that three of the fallen soldiers from 3 Yorks stationed here in Warminster come from your area.
On behalf of Lion President Jack (Tug) Wilson and all the members of the Warminster Lions Club I offer our sincerest sympathy to your local community.
As a garrison town we have always encompassed our military community and as a Lions Club we have forged strong links with them and work together with them on several community projects.
Warminster, like Huddersfield, is a town in mourning.
Not just the Garrison, but the whole community is united in sympathy for the families and loved ones and we are committed to do all we can to support them.
Richard Owen
Secretary, Warminster Lions Club
No war with Iran
JEREMY Corbyn from the National Stop the War Coalition says it is time to take to the streets to stop a war with Iran. I agree.
Under the guise of George W Bush’s ‘war on terror’ the fires of war were fanned with disastrous results in the Middle East and the rules of the Geneva Convention were torn up.
If Britain was not against this reckless and arrogant strategy then the US assumed we were for it.
Iraq proved us both wrong – but at a huge cost in terms of devastation and of lives lost of both Western soldiers and Iraqi civilians.
On top of the failed wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, tensions are now being cranked up to a very dangerous level over Iran.
No-one could be an apologist for the brutality and repression of the Iranian regime, but war can’t possibly be the answer.
It is Iran’s growing influence in the region, not its ability to produce nuclear weapons, which is vexing American interests.
So we are now seeing a re-run of the Weapons of Mass Destruction hysteria that swung public opinion in favour of the invasion of Iraq.
Iran, having signed the Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT), has the right to produce nuclear energy for civilian use and also has the right to make nuclear weapons.
Israel, on the other hand – the US watchdog in the Middle East – has an arsenal of at least 200 nuclear weapons and has no such rights because they refused to sign the NPT.
Signing the NPT means that you have to allow inspections by the International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA).
The US, of course, has its own nuclear weapons.
The hypocrisy and the double standards of Israel and the Western powers is astonishing.
The UN says it is keen to negotiate with Iran to resolve matters peacefully, but the pressures the US and the EU are bringing to bear in the form of sanctions are having a crippling effect on the people in Iran.
These sanctions and the intensified naval patrols in the Straits of Hormuz are not far short of an act of war.
Worryingly, there does not appear to be any opposition in Parliament to a war with Iran but the majority of people in this country are against any more wars. Our government is not listening to us.
The consequences of a war with Iran could engulf the whole world.
Many people are heartily sickened and angry that a small ruling elite, for reasons of power and profit, seem intent on dragging us into yet another, far more dangerous war.
For me, the tragic deaths of six more soldiers in Afghanistan should serve as a wake-up call. Too many lives have been lost already, too many families are going through a living hell. The price is too high.
We must demand that our government cut itself free of the warmongering that is leading up to another war.
June Jones
National Stop the War Coalition, Marsden
Predictable Afghanistan
HUDDERSFIELD mourns the loss of six brave lads, three of them local.
The Examiner invites readers to express their view of the situation in Afghanistan and this freedom of speech is the linchpin of civilised democracy these lads were instrumental in protecting.
One of the problems of democracy, however, is that it is so appealing in Western terms that successive British and American governments are deluded into believing that if we impose our values upon underdeveloped lands where the culture is alien to ours, they will almost immediately embrace it.
In Afghanistan this is not true. We are more likely to see the same kind of carnage that afflicts Libya and Syria once we beat the final retreat in 2014.
It was almost predictable. If the former Soviet Union with all its might and logistical advantage could not succeed in changing Afghanistan, how could we possibly do so?
As for our lost soldiers, the families can be proud that their children grew up to be among the finest examples of youth that this country can offer.
Our armed forces, men and women, are the bastion that ultimately protects us from the horror that we see on our TVs. Let us always hold them in high esteem.
As for our politicians, they will no doubt brace themselves to paint the best picture possible when the flag is finally lowered and the last plane leaves Helmand Province.
Then the Taliban will re-emerge proclaiming once again that while the West had the watches, they had the time.
With this in mind it would be best if we refrain from debating a re-occupation of Afghanistan until the year 4050.
Richard Heath
Heckmondwike
