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Wharfedale Observer
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Letters to the Editor
From the Telegraph & Argus, first published Friday 7th Jun 2002.
SIR - What a lovely idea from the staff of Eccleshill Library to recreate Collinsons Café in the upstairs meeting room to celebrate the Queen's Golden Jubilee. Jam tarts, cakes and buns, all arranged on glass stands and double-decker cake plates.
Where do you see that now except in the top-class establishments? And all for a donation to the Marie Curie Cancer Centre.
A nostalgic day recalling memories of the other quality establishments now sadly gone: Swan Arcade, Betty's Café, Busby's, Brown & Muff, are some that come to mind - the former quality end of Bradford.
Well done, but do we citizens always have to rely on the past for quality times?
R J Lacey, Wrose Road, Bradford.
SIR - May I, through the T&A, say a big thank you to the wonderful staff at Eccleshill Library for the lovely day at "Collinson's Remembered".
The recreation of the café was well thought out: service with a smile, tea, coffee and an assortment of cakes and pastries provided, I believe from the "borrowers" who use the library.
Meeting up with friends brought back many happy memories. Well done.
Shirley Harrison, Musgrove Drive, Eccleshill.
SIR - I moved to Bradford nine years ago, and I would rather commute daily to my workplace in York, through ever-increasing traffic congestion, than leave Bradford.
Bradford is a beautiful city, the people are so friendly and I really hope we win the Capital of Culture. It will be the boost Bradford so desperately needs to highlight and improve all that it has to offer.
People do take this city for granted and it is such a shame.
Shirley Bilton, Meadowcroft Rise, Bierley.
SIR - In response to the May 31 letter suggesting that Valley Parade be sold off to the highest bidder (presumably to be turned into a supermarket or something...)
We can do this, and walk away from the place, sometime after the Cenotaph has been ground down into drive chippings and the rusting battleships at the bottom of Pearl Harbour are sold off for scrap.
OK, maybe that's a bit much, but Valley Parade is not just a stadium, it's a memorial to 56 people who lost their lives, and I don't see how we can just be expected to walk away from that.
It seems that we have two alternatives: either we all go to sleep and let people with no interest in Bradford, Bradford City, or anything other than their wallets make all the decisions concerning the future of City, and we lose everything, or we all get together to show some sort of solidarity and make our voices heard.
Even non-City fans or non-football fans can see that anything bad happening to the club will affect Bradford itself. Or is Bradford something else we should give up on? Slag off City, slag off Bradford, and do all our shopping in Leeds?
Russell Spence, Hillside Road, Bradford 3.
SIR - I just had to contact you after returning from London and the Prom at the Palace concert on Saturday.
My husband, Martin, and I were lucky enough to receive tickets in the ballot and it was the most fantastic experience. I felt so privileged to be there.
We were treated exceptionally well and had the most wonderful time. We were lucky enough to se Prince Edward and Sophie as they mingled with the crowd, and also we were in a small group of people to see the whole of the royal party as they walked from the palace to their seats.
It is a memory I will treasure. I don't know of anyone else from Bradford who was lucky enough to be there but we are two Bradfordians who were proud to be at such a special event and as such I felt we had to share it with your readers.
Mrs Julie King, Reevylands Drive, Wibsey.
SIR - Song of the Shipley/ Manchester Road/Wakefield Road/home owner: "I'm travelling further to work because they knocked down my house to make way for the road built to allow for the car driven by the man who drives further to work because they knocked down his house to make way...blues"
In Basle, that well-known Swiss Third World shanty town, only 25 per cent of all journeys are by car. If we followed their route (so to speak), no doubt we would plummet to Swiss standards of living.
In Denmark, seven-year olds can cycle to school on their own, such is their unenlightened attitude towards cars round schools and road building. No doubt they envy our much greater success in killing and maiming our children (aka car-nage).
Let's build more roads in the Aire Valley. It will solve our traffic problems. Like Manchester and Wakefield Roads. And the inner city Ring Road. And...
Mike Healey (Bradford Cycling Action Group), Dyehouse Road, Oakenshaw.
SIR - Our group would like to know how Councillor Eaton's group on the Council can spend £200 million on schools but refuses pensioners a free bus pass.
When is our Council going to do things for us, ie give us buildings to hold our meetings, social events etc?
Money should be found to help pensioners. We worked and fought for the Council to look after us all in our hour of need.
Our group is growing fast.
J R Smith (Retired Persons Action Group), Flawith Drive, Fagley.
SIR - Prosperity for all is more possible than ever before. Because of technology and improved production techniques in farming, this should be the case.
Because of capitalism, however, food is destroyed if it cannot be sold, as a tiny minority controls the world regardless of human cost.
As far as the Soviet Union is concerned, their policies were horrendous distortions of true Marxism, which is now more relevant than ever, with capitalism in its biggest crisis of poverty since the 1930s with unemployment, racism and war.
About 27 million Soviet citizens died in the Second World War when, despite Stalin's misleadership, the people of the USSR defeated fascism, the offspring of capitalism.
To avoid such carnage again, a grave choice faces the billions on this planet.
Either overthrow the plutocratic tyrannies and build a society on co-operation or friendship, or face a re-run of the 1930s culminating in Armageddon.
C Spurgin, Dorset Street, Skipton.
SIR - Years ago I went to live in a foreign country. There, I worked and earned my living and obeyed the laws of the land. I did not continually whine and complain about the lifestyle and culture. I did not insult the people and their ways.
I certainly did not try to impose my customs on the "natives". They already had their own, which did not particularly suit me, so after three years I returned to Bradford.
You should either adapt to the host country or get out and find somewhere which suits you better. People who want to live in an undemocratic tribal society ruled by religious leaders should go and find one; there are plenty.
That would be less hypocritical than continuing to live in a society which they despise, while endlessly moaning about it.
L Hobsbaum, Willow Crescent, Bradford.
SIR - I congratulate Sarah Jakes on her excellent column about school bullying (T&A, May 29). I thought with smaller class sizes and parental guidance it could be stamped out, but sadly in many ways it doesn't seem to have been the case.
Colin Wilson, Brunswick Gardens, Halifax.
SIR - T Healey (Letters, May 30) would do better to criticise the police for their inability to properly protect the city rather than praise their cowardly and supine actions in cancelling the peace march.
As for Capital of Culture, I find it a disgrace that a council which, along with the police, cannot guarantee the safety of its own people to walk the streets should attempt to attract innocent tourists.
David Simpson, Hirst Avenue, Heckmondwike.
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