CREDIT where it is due, I wish to thank the lads myself and on behalf of many residents I have talked to in the Clayton West and Scissett area, for the stirling work carried out by the farm lads on the big green tractor with the snow plough.

We simply could not believe our eyes when we saw it with the yellow gritting lorry clearing snow on Monday morning, as they cleared the entire road in one pass!

It was a surreal moment and one I wish I had captured on camera. Although there was a reasonable amount of snow, the tractor ploughed one side of the highway passing the snow directly to the lorry which then ploughed and gritted the road leaving it clear for traffic to move both ways freely.

Not for many years have the main roads been so methodically cleared in the villages, let alone the side streets and cul de sacs.

I caught up with the tractor driver on Tuesday happily snow ploughing the side street to thank him. I had an important journey to make on Monday morning, which I could not have made out of my part of the village, had they not done the job they did.

He said the two of them work as a team on the farm and employed the same principles of team work to the highways.

He said they looked at the snow covered roads and instinctively knew the only way to clear them efficiently was to work in tandem.

Well thanks again lads and keep up the good work, perhaps next time I will get that photograph!

MR G WADSWORTH

Clayton West

Debate starts now

DAVID Cameron has fired the starting pistol for the great EU debate, and has nailed his colours to the “In/Out” mast.

Cynics among us can take heart from the knowledge that there is enough anti-Federalist sentiment on his backbenches to keep him honest on this.

My emotional reaction is to bring the promised referendum forward to the earliest possible moment, but rationally I support the proposed timetable.

There is a need for reasoned debate within the EU, and we, the UK electorate, deserve the fullest amount of information and discussion possible before making probably the gravest political choice of our lives.

This is a decision to be made not on emotional grounds, but after deep and sober reflection on the competing arguments.

There is, however, one argument that I am already supremely unimpressed with: that somehow the only way for the UK to have international standing and influence is as part of an ever-more tightly integrated EU.

There is a State which is in its own right rich, with oil reserves, an extremely high-tech space age industrial base and international recognition of its name. It is part of a large and powerful federation of fully-integrated States, and yet has absolutely zero international standing or influence. Step forward, Texas.

Those of our national politicians who are for European integration should just take a step back and ask one of their favourite focus groups these questions: Who are the State Governors of Texas, Iowa and New York? How much attention have you paid to the policies of any of these States?

What do you care about their views on the Global economy?

Then ponder the old warning: “Be careful what you wish for.”

Do our biggest political egos really seek international oblivion? I don’t care about them, but I do care about the UK.

Bill Armer

Deighton

Setting an example

I AM surprised and a bit saddened at Barry Gibson’s seemingly casual attitude to the Lance Armstrong doping affair (Examiner January 23).

Barry asks: “Who cares if Lance was doped to the eyeballs?”

Well, I would think anybody who believes in basic honesty and decency would.

I fail to understand in his article how Barry can get worked up about a bicycle bell on a towpath but not about cheating in sport.

He plays down the drug taking by saying that it only ‘enhanced’ Armstrong’s performance. If it meant so little, then why did he use drugs?

We all know he took them because he was a cheat who sought advantage. He had regard only for himself. The honest competitors abiding by the rules counted for nothing.

If we ‘accept’ this cheating in sport as casually as Barry appears to in this instance, where does it end? Is it then acceptable at home and work?

Would a journalist bending the truth just a tad for a better headline be in order? Of course not. It’s deceitful and dishonest.

And what about our young people in sport. What advice and what example would we give them? Hopefully, not to behave as Lance Armstrong did.

So Barry, you ask ‘who cares’ I would suggest a lot more than you possibly imagine.

JMCC

Oakes

Not teachers’ decision

BRYAN Spencer (Safety First, January 24) tells us about hearing ‘one teacher after another giving the stock answer that schools were being closed for the safety of the children.’

At the same kids, he says, can be seen out playing in the snow.

Might I ask him to think about a couple of points?

First, he hasn’t heard teachers going on about it one after another. He might have heard headteachers, but they’re a different class of being. Teachers have no say at all on whether or not schools are open or closed.

Is it going too far to suggest that this is an example of the sort of negative criticism of teachers which children hear from too many adults? Which undermines teachers and schools in children’s eyes? Which leads to poor behaviour? Which teachers are then blamed for?

Second, the health and safety aspect is simple. Imagine hundreds of children trapped in a school overnight. No food. Nowhere to sleep. Imagine the criticism of teachers which we’d then have all over the newspapers.

R A Vant

Holmfirth

Running repairs

THE corner shop where I got my daily newspapers is approximately four to five minutes from my home.

One morning last year as I walked on workmen were busy putting up a “road closed” sign and security fencing round a large pot hole in the road.

Minutes later as I walked back, hey presto! Signs, workmen, fencing – all gone. Hole filled with asphalt.

Fast forward a few months. Asphalt washed away by heavy rain and a larger than ever hole.

If this is replicated throughout our borough surely it would be more cost worthy to do the whole roads properly in one go and to last?

MRS N CLARKE

Almondbury

Wonderful Flowers

I REFER to a letter in Mailbag on January 19 regarding Flowers Hall, Kirkheaton, as my late husband was in the home until his recent death.

How I agree with your writer, no one could have been kinder, even loving to my husband. Despite his illness he was happy and content and made real friends.

If everywhere was like The Flowers the world would be a better place.

BETTY M VEITCH

Huddersfield