BRITAIN gives tens of millions of pounds to poor and developing countries.

We are bombarded with posters and leaflets with pictures of emaciated hungry children in Africa and Asia covered in flies and drinking dirty water, living in squalid primitive conditions, and dying of various diseases.

What I really do not understand is, nearly 30 years ago, there was a massive Live Aid concert which raised millions of pounds for those people in Africa who were starving and dying from hunger and thirst and lack of shelter, and various diseases, and they are still in the same state today.

We are constantly asked to donate money or sponsor a child in Africa who has cataracts, Aids, who needs an education, fresh water, books, clothes ... and it goes on, and it’s been going on for over 30 years.

So why, with all the money and aid that’s been donated, are we still being bombarded with posters and leaflets, and asked to sponsor and donate money?

The world’s governments hold regular international conferences on helping under-developed countries. This too has been going on for years, so why do we hear of thousands of men, women, and children, dying in poverty from starvation in Africa and Asia?

In truth it should have all been eradicated and these people should be living in decent and clean conditions with no diseases or starvation!

It really makes one think when we see the heads of these poor nations in expensive suits, looking well fed, surrounded by well fed and suited body guards, travelling in big limousines and having private jets, some with their own personal army, who are armed with all the modern weaponry.

So when asked to give generously, who are you giving it to?

Alan Parkinson

Lower Cumberworth

Quid pro quo?

PRIME Minister David Cameron has pledged to give 0.7% of the government’s annual income to the aid programme.

I am no mathematician but to me this presents a problem.

The government’s annual income is negative as we are running the biggest budget deficit ever.

So every year we have to borrow more to pay our way, which means we have no money to give.

So in order to give aid we have to borrow more money still.

So 0.7% of nothing would also be nothing, that would mean that our aid recipients should by rights be paying us!

Roy Bottomley

Crosland Moor

An unsafe conviction?

HAVING read the comments made by Hard Up and Fed Up (Mailbag, June 13) on the conviction of Kirkheaton farmer Alfred Moore I will say this – the matter is being dealt with by the Criminal Cases Review Commission who have now been studying the case for just about two years.

They have identified ‘substantial issues’ relating to the original trial and conviction and are also looking at new evidence and new arguments not presented at the original trial, material that if heard by the original trial jury may have changed the outcome of that trial.

Last week I addressed a group of about 20 people at Kirkheaton Cricket Club, at which I declared not just one piece of compelling evidence, but several.

At the end of the night each of those who attended told me personally that in view of what they had seen and heard, Alfred Moore should not, in their opinion, have been convicted.

I will now await the decision of the CCRC.

I hope this has been of interest to Hard Up and Fed Up and I will now shut up.

Steve Lawson

Kirkheaton

Global warning

MEP Godfrey Bloom is fond of letting us know what he thinks about everything under the sun, and his letter in the Examiner on June 11 was no exception.

This time he treated us to his (unexplained) opinion on global warming.

I challenged him on a statement he made in the Examiner five years ago.

I quote it exactly: “How many of you realise that by 2009 the pint glass will be recycled to the rubbish bins of England, to be replaced by the quarter and half-litre glasses used by the rest of Europe?

“Not only that, but centuries-old traditional names, such as light and mild, will go with them?”

I’ve emailed him several times since. I asked if he’d noticed that we can still drink pints of mild.

I’ve even offered to meet him for a drink in a pub of his choice and buy him a pint. The Nook in Holmfirth is my choice (they brew their own pints) but I’m prepared to be flexible.

There’s been no reply, and I think I know why.

I think Mr Bloom knows he doesn’t have a leg to stand on. He does not appear to be interested in making a sensible contribution on important issues like Europe.

I think he wants us to think that our whole way of life is being threatened by ‘Them’, and that he is a St George style champion who can stop ‘Them’.

It’s simply not true, and he knows it. I invite him to give us his side of the argument.

R A Vant

Holmfirth

Changes in perception

RUSS Elias (Mailbag, June 14) refers to ‘climate change denial’, which he claims to have detected in an earlier letter by Bernard McGuin.

What I believe that Mr Elias means is that some people question the role of human activity in allegedly causing climate change, which is quite a different matter.

Many, indeed most, people (myself included) would agree that our climate is changing. There is some debate in academic circles about whether the globe is actually warming, or to what extent if it is. There is more of a dispute about the extent of human agency in this.

The fact is that we know relatively little about climate on the global scale.

What we do know is that the globe has experienced ice ages and warm periods in the past, and presumably will do again. Neanderthal culture did not extend to power stations and petrol engines.

In recorded history, about 1,800 years ago the Romans cultivated grape vines in the North of England.

Today, the climate is still too cold to do this. In the Great Frost of 1683/4 the river Thames was frozen over for two months and the British Isles were ringed with sea ice.

Since 1814 the Thames has not fully frozen.

The conclusion is that Britain today is warmer than it was between the 17th and 19th centuries, but cooler than in Roman times.

This is clear evidence of climate change, but we have to conclude that this change was not driven by human activity.

In the 17th century industry relied on wind and water power. Even into the 20th century, most of the globe was not industrialised.

Bill Armer

Deighton

Carers need care too

THIS week is National Carers Week, and I would like to ask your readers to spare a thought for the six million carers in the UK. One in eight of the population cares for a disabled or older spouse or family member and this number is rising rapidly.

Carers provide round the clock care for their loved ones and often go unrecognised, unsupported and invisible to society. Without regular respite from their daily struggle, many carers face a bleak future of physical and social isolation, depression, ill health and despair.

I work for a charity called Vitalise. We provide desperately-needed respite breaks for people with disabilities and their carers at our accessible UK centres.

The people who visit us often tell us just how important a break is in their lives, people like one woman who cares for her father, who has dementia.

She told us: “The biggest challenge in caring for my dad is simply that it’s 24/7. I feel isolated from a ‘normal’ life, as all my time and energy goes into caring for him.

“Carers never get enough support. I cared for dad for a year with no support at all.

“Regular breaks are really important. Just being able to relax, knowing dad is safe and happy, makes such a difference.

“I really feel I wouldn’t cope at all now without our breaks.

“At Vitalise I get to be his daughter again, instead of his carer – it’s a wonderful feeling.”

During Carers Week 2011, I would like to ask your readers to remember that carers need breaks just as much as those they care for, and to support our vital work in the region. We don’t get a penny from central government, but rely on the compassion and generosity of our supporters to keep on providing our vital services, so please help us.

To make a donation or for more information about our breaks, call 0845 345 1972 or visit www.vitalise.org.uk.

Colin Brook

Senior Communications Officer

Vitalise