DO THEY really believe that lowering the alcohol level for driving is going to make any difference to the accidents on the roads?
The people who are going to drive with excess alcohol will do so whatever the legal limit is set at. It would be far better enforcing the present limit eg roadside cheeks, then drivers might then think there’s a chance of being caught, unlike the present when the chances are you’ll not be caught unless you’re involved in an accident.
The minority of drivers who drink five, six, seven or eight pints are not bothered what the limit is. The majority abides by the laws and it is not they that cause the problem but once again it will be the law- abiding majority that suffer with any reduction of the alcohol level.
I would rather have a car coming down our road with a driver who as had a pint and travelling at 30mph then a driver with no alcohol and doing 50 mph.
Enforce the present laws before making new ones. BARRY TINKER
Longwood
Launch a blitz on faulty lights
NOW that the evenings are drawing in unfortunately, car owners should check their headlights.
I am appalled by the number of headlights that are faulty. Every evening I can see at least three or four cars with maladjusted lights. Isn’t this an offence?
It can be very disconcerting when one of these vehicles is coming towards you and you don’t know if it is a car or motor bike. It could cause a nasty accident if the offside light is out. I wonder sometimes if these cars are not insured or have no MOT.
I know the police are very busy but a blitz on these cars could make the roads much safer.
E Broadley
Newsome
Landowners’ duty to control ragwort
MANY supporters have contacted us recently to voice their concerns about ragwort, a weed which is blooming at the moment. As every horse owner and farmer knows, ragwort contains toxins which can have debilitating or fatal consequences if eaten by horses and other grazing animals.
Ragwort has its place in the countryside; it supports a wide variety of invertebrates and is a major nectar source for many insects, but it must be controlled, especially where there are horses and livestock. Land stewardship and animal husbandry are both huge responsibilities and I know that they are taken seriously by farmers, but it is important that the dangers posed by ragwort reach the widest possible audience.
There is a growing concern that some public bodies who own land, such as local authorities, are not taking the problem seriously and managing their land appropriately, but there is no excuse; a Code of Practice on how to stop the spread of ragwort is available from Defra.
The Countryside Alliance will be writing to all local authorities and other bodies in the coming weeks to remind them that they have a duty to control ragwort on their land and must be vigilant, especially where their land abuts farmland.
The threat ragwort poses to animals cannot be underestimated and is something that all landowners, whether public or private, must take seriously.
Simon Hart
Chief Executive, Countryside Alliance
MP supports fluoridation
I CAN confirm that Kali Mountford MP supports the fluoridation of water due to the “clear dental health improvements” it brings. I can also confirm that Ms Mountford supports a Government which has systematically destroyed NHS dental care.
Colne Valley Cynic
Secret dossier on car tax?
IT’S not surprising that Kali does not believe the government on car tax. Neither do we. The fact that the government has actually admitted that most of us will be worse off due to their changes must be very hard to stomach for Kali.
Perhaps she has seen a secret dossier that begins; “Once upon a time in New Labourland.....” Is there something you have not told us Kali?
Bernard McGuin
Marsh
Comic favourites online
FURTHER to Fred Berry’s letter (Mailbag August 9) about comics, interested readers should go to the website www.britishcomics.20m.com to see stories from Adventure, Hotspur, Rover, Skipper and Wizard. “Limp along Leslie” and “The Tough of the Track” and others are there!
Frank L Appleyard
Shepley
Bags of praise for service
I TELEPHONED the council garden waste service on Tuesday, July 29, emptied on August 1. All gone in three days! I don’t fill the bags to the top, I had 25 bags. This is second time I have had a collection. Both jobs well done. Thank you.
Mrs C
Dalton
Missing bus mystery
COULD anyone tell me what has happened to the bus that should come down Cowlersley Lane just after 9am? First they cut the bus off into Milnsbridge and now the 9am bus is missing. That’s one hour to wait for the next. Some people need that bus to get into work for 9.30am. It gets worse up here.
G Senior
Linthwaite
Beautiful world with tax incentives
IN REPLY to Lewis Rich (Mailbag, August 5), I did not make any comment whatsoever regarding gay people. I quoted Sarah Jane Robinson’s letter as “interesting”.
It alarms me that, due to the credit crunch and the rise in energy prices, Mr Rich is considering “selling his daughter into slavery”, but that is his choice and God grants us freedom of choice. Leviticus and Exodus are, of course, of the Old Testament age.
Jesus of the New Testament age asks us “To Love God, our neighbour and our enemy”.
In Matthews 19, he said “At the beginning, the creator made them male to female, for this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united with his wife and the two will become one flesh”.
I visualise our beautiful world, healed, made whole with tax incentives for married couples.
Theresa Quarmby
Kirkburton
Lives of the rich no more precious
ISN’T there a saying that you can judge a nation by how it treats its old and sick? If so then this country must be at the very bottom of the pile.
We are forever being told we are the fourth richest nation in the world so how come that people (the majority of whom have paid all their working lives into the health service) are being denied the treatments that would enable them to stay with their loved ones for longer? What is more precious than life?
I would hazard a guess that all those from pop stars, entertainers, heads of retail industries have made their millions from the plain and common working man – the lowest paid and the back-bone of this country, the ones who take and carry out the orders of their so-called “betters” and are now being denied the treatments they are entitled to.
Everyone is equal in the sight of God but not to that ill chosen National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE). They have taken upon themselves to give the thumbs up or thumbs down on who lives and who dies. Anyone who has a grain of common sense knows that if anyone on their committee, MPs, celebrity stars, uncle Tom Cobley and all who have money will have no problem whatsoever in getting the treatment they require. Why should any of their lives be more precious than those who have worked to make their fortunes for them?
Mrs N Clarke
Almondbury
Cherish our global wildlife
I am writing to ask readers not to fall for the nonsense that eating kangaroo meat will help end global warming.
Whilst it is true that they produce fewer greenhouse gasses than cattle, their population in Australia is in crisis and an increase in the market in the UK for this so-called ‘exotic meat’ could spell disaster for these gentle animals. Plus, any trade that encourages meat to be flown from the other side of the world can in no way ever be described as green.
The annual kangaroo slaughter in Australia is already the largest massacre of land mammals on the planet today. Each year, millions of kangaroos are shot for their meat and skins. Baby joeys are bludgeoned, shot or decapitated when their mothers are killed, the ‘worthless’ waste of the industry. Over-hunting and the recent drought have decimated their numbers. Official Australian government figures show that there are now 33 million fewer kangaroos in the areas used for commercial hunting than just seven years ago – a drop of 57%. Yet still the killing goes on. Viva! has long campaigned against the sale of kangaroo meat. The revulsion at massacring the world’s wildlife for food has led to all of the UK’s major retailers dropping kangaroo meat because of our campaign.
Australians – and the rest of us – would be much better off throwing a veggie burger on the barbie if we want to cut our carbon footprint. Surely it’s greener to cherish our global wildlife by not blasting it inexorably towards extinction.
Justin Kerswell
Campaigner, Viva!
