Letters to the Editor

At 8.45 am two weeks ago I was walking across Centenary Square on my way to work. Four or five men were sitting on one of the benches. One of them, who appeared very drunk, came up behind me as I crossed the road and asked me for a cigarette. I told him to leave me alone. By the time I got to KFC he was still with me, still pestering.

He was so drunk he fell into the wall, missing me by inches.

After some garbled speech he latched on to a man walking up Darley Street. The man must have told him to get lost because the drunk was waving his arms about and shouting obscenities.

When I got to work I complained to the police only to be told: "The police are here to fight crime and it is down to the wardens to deal with this kind of thing."

Sometimes it is like running a gauntlet from Hustlergate to Sunbridge Road where I need to catch the bus.

I must admit that the begging has improved, but the drunks are still there.

Jeanette Beaumont, Bingley Road, Saltaire.

SIR - Your Comment on May 2 rightly concluded that "local government is failing". But it chose the silliest reason for blaming the Liberal Democrats for this.

It accused the Lib Dems of "pinching the votes" that rightly belonged to other parties.

That echoed the sad old cry familiar to last century's boxing-ring politics. The Lib Dems should be thanked, not pilloried, for offering Bradford a third way forward out of the Labour/Tory mess we are in.

Westminster is inhabited by control freaks. Everything that Bradford wishes to do locally is determined, one way or another, by a national Government that adjusts the rules, holds the purse strings and appoints the quangos. Westminster, in short, bakes the cake and Bradford can do no more than ice it.

That is Labour and Conservative party policy; it is neither liberal nor democratic.

The article also condemned Jeanette Sunderland for the "tense and difficult period behind the scenes wheeling and dealing" which follows the election. But that is how all political parties do their thinking.

To make voters less "apathetic and cynical" this paper should explain to them which manifesto, the Labour or Tory, deserves Jeanette Sunderland's support.

Sam Micklem, Spring Lane, Eldwick.

SIR - It would be too easy to condemn those electors who voted for the BNP as fascists and racists. Such a conclusion is simplistic: the reason for the election of neo-fascists in some of the wards in Northern England is deprivation and neglect.

For too long New Labour has ignored the council estates and inner-city areas of northern towns, allowing them to become dominated by drug dealers, pimps, prostitution and criminal burglars.

Many old people have become the main victims of these cowardly criminals. Other families see no future for their children, many of whom are tempted into this criminal environment.

Such people are easy targets for the peddlers of simple solutions - the BNP.

But let it be made quite clear; the neo-fascist BNP has no answer; only a racist lie to peddle.

The only answer to the lies of the neo-fascists is to remove the causes of deprivation and environmental neglect by creating educational and job opportunities on the neglected estates and inner-cities.

It is no good New Labour pretending they have no money for these projects. They soon found money for the illegal war against Iraq.

Sean Connor, Cunliffe Road, Bradford 8.

SIR - Margaret Eaton's claims that the electorate turned its back on the British National Party in Bradford might have had some credibility were it not for the fact that the BNP vote outstripped that of the Tories in four of the wards that both parties contested.

So where does that leave her party in various areas of Bradford then? Across West Yorkshire the BNP polled just short of 25,000 votes where it stood for election. A little more than just a "protest vote", I think.

The popularity of the established parties is being seriously questioned by voters and, boy, they don't like it.

But instead of MPs and councillors looking at their own shortcomings, they smear the BNP at all turns.

Stephen Smith, Woodhall Avenue, Thornbury.

SIR - We are frequently told of the apathy of the electorate. What about the apathy of the candidates?

Only one of the three candidates for Odsal ward delivered his manifesto in this area. Perhaps the other two candidates had thrown in the towel before polling day.

Kenneth Petrie, Parkside Road, Bradford 5.

SIR - I would like to congratulate the public of Bradford for not electing one single BNP candidate as councillor. Also what shame on their so-called leader, who failed to gain a seat in Oldham where he has inflamed the race issue to serve his own interests.

These Nazis have been given a good slapping and we must ensure that they don't return by all of us working together to make this city of ours a colour-blind city.

Malcolm Wilsher Muhammad, Leeds Road, Bradford 3

SIR - The question of identity cards has once again been raised. What a superb idea - it should have happened years ago.

In this technological age all manner of useful information could be included on it. Law-abiding citizens would have nothing to fear and it would make life simpler and much more secure.

As well as including a photograph and certain personal details it could also include a thumb print or even a retina scan to make identification infallible. However, I would go further and suggest that a DNA reference should also be included and this should be supplied by every man, woman, child, immigrant and visitor to this country.

Can you imagine the billions of pounds that would be saved by virtually stamping out fraudulent activities, not least in the fields of security, finance, immigration and Social Services. But even more dramatic would be the possibility of solving many rapes, murders, assaults and robberies almost within hours.

The advantages of identity cards are endless and the sooner they are introduced the better. If any proof were needed, then the fact that the Human Rights brigade are bleating and complaining about it must show it is a good thing.

M Wood, Westercroft View, Northowram.

SIR - It seems to have escaped the notice of those who favour joining Bradford's stations by an above-ground link that it would cut the city in half.

Would it be possible to modify the Midlands 1897 and 1911 plans and put the line into a tunnel above Ripleyville, turn Forster Square Station into a double decker station (surface and underground) and bring the through line back to the surface at Queens Road thus avoiding crossing Forster Square?

G Hutton, Oakdale Drive, Bradford 10,

SIR - May I through your newspaper say thank you to the Cancer Support Centre at Daisy Hill.

Thanks to all the staff, Alison who helped us fill in forms, Alison in charge of transport who organised the volunteer drivers to take me and my husband to Cookridge every day for the last four weeks.

The drivers waited until my husband had his treatment, which could take up to two hours. Without these ladies and gentlemen I don't know how we would have coped. Many, many thanks.

Barbara Haylock, Beacon Road, Wibsey.