Letters to the Editor

Mr Priestley rightly writes, "This city of ours can become a battleground, giving the bad guys what they want and taking us all down the road to Hell. Or it can become a flagship of tolerance and understanding, a place where diversity is accepted by all without resentment or animosity."

Whether one is born in Bradford or has come from outside to settle here, everyone has made this city their home and no-one likes to shatter the peace and tranquillity of one's home.

Let us work hard to achieve peace, let us spread the message of peace among our friends, our colleagues, our classmates, our neighbours and indeed everyone.

I hope and pray that every one of us becomes an Ambassador of Peace and works hard to achieve peace and harmony.

I hope this dream of mine and of every other peace-loving Bradfordian will be realised sooner than later.

Saeed Anwar, Warley Grove, Bradford 3.

SIR - I went to my last Thornton Neighbourhood Forum on February 26 to find out what was happening to our local Thornton Pool building.

We were told the building was sold for £90,000 and will open as a gym and snooker hall.

I asked if the money would be spent on a new swimming pool for Thornton and got the answer from Councillor Richardson that there will never be another Thornton swimming pool.

Where will the £90,000 go? To help maintain Eccleshill and Manningham pools?

Queensbury's pool was made over last year. Why is Thornton not worth spending money on a new pool?

I am only glad my children all learned to swim at the Thornton village pool. I feel sorry for the village children with no family car to take them swimming and I am glad we no longer have a mill dam.

Veronica Farnell, Market Street, Thornton.

SIR - How can our beloved fuhrer Tony Blair reconcile his professed Christianity, his recently announced support for "The Children's Society" and the fear which he admits to have experienced as a child when his father suffered a stroke, with his apparent lack of concern for the effect that escalation of the 12-years war on Iraq would have on Iraqi children and their parents and on the bereaved families of British Servicemen and women, who could also lose their lives in pursuance of an unjust war?

The impressive "Stop the War " demonstration in Bradford and the magnificent peaceful coalition of many races in London should surely indicate that the alternative to war is "peaceful coexistence".

Now that so many members of Parliament have found their courage and their voices, they should move "No confidence" in our fuhrer and relieve the tension and anxiety of millions of people, both at home and abroad.

Dennis Edmondson, Duck Hill, Pecket Well, Hebden Bridge.

SIR - I note that the 121 Labour MPs who voted against war in Iraq at this stage did not include Terry Rooney and Gerry Sutcliffe. This came as no surprise considering the deafening silence from both over the last few months. Their policy seems to be "If it gets too hot in the kitchen, jump into the fridge with the light off."

One vote less next time Terry and I am sure many Bradfordians feel the same.

Don't fight shepherds armed only with crooks, fight the crooks in Texas who want their grubby, blood-stained hands on Iraqi oil.

Thomas Craig, Mount Avenue, Eccleshill.

SIR - Some people oppose protest methods used by human shields such as Karl Dallas. He approached the local Stop the War group for a donation. After a discussion it was agreed to give him £50.

People are considering a wide range of actions, including walkouts and strikes.

Bradford Stop the War is calling on people to meet in Centenary Square at 5pm on the day Blair starts the war.

Ateeq Siddique, Bradford Stop the War Coalition, c/o 17-19 Chapel Street, Bradford, BD1. (e-mail: bradford@stopwar.org.uk).

SIR - Simple facts. Iraq has not complied with UN Resolution 1441 which threatened military action. Iraq has not supplied details to UN inspectors of what happened to tons of lethal nerve agents they were known to have in 1992.

More than half a million Iraqi citizens are unaccounted for over the past ten years. Saddam Hussein praised the New York airline terrorists as martyrs to the cause.

Do political no-marks like the pathetically-timid Alice Mahon, the failed former minister Frank Dobson, the foolish Karl Dallas and the publicity-seeking Bradford reality TV girl Uzma Bashir not see that the real enemy is and always has been the murderer Saddam Hussein?

Threequarters of the country are of the same opinion but choose to let Tony Blair and the armed forces deal with it with our complete support. We do not have to undertake crazy stunts to get noticed.

Tony Sutcliffe, High Park Drive, Heaton.

SIR - So we have finally learned the scale of the shambles the Government is in over asylum (T&A, February 28).

A record 110,000 asylum applications were received in 2002, a 20 per cent increase on the previous year, and twice as many as when Labour came to office. Virtually all other countries have reported a fall.

The fact remains that the overwhelming majority of these applications are not genuine. In fact a large number of them are not trying to flee persecution from the countries such as Iraq, they are trying to escape from France!

It is not tough words that people want from Tony Blair and David Blunkett; it is tough action.

It is only a firm but fair system which secures all applicants on arrival and processes their case quickly which will restore faith in the system. Genuine refugees should then be welcomed and supported while the bogus are sent back. This is not a racist suggestion; it is common sense.

Instead the Government taxes us to the hilt, forces students into huge debts and pensioners to sell their homes for care. How come they can afford to support so many bogus asylum seekers?

Philip Davies, Conservative prospective Parliamentary candidate, Shipley, Otley Road, Shipley.

SIR - Bill Lee (Letters, February 22) justifies the millions we give to the Royal Family and hangers-on by the way of the Civil List by saying that we get more back in return from the Crown Estates.

But can he justify why exactly the Royal Family own these vast areas of very profitable land in the first place? Did they earn them? Did they pay for them out of their own money?

William the Conqueror was a good example of how the Royals acquired large areas of our land (and I mean our land). He slaughtered anyone who got in his way, which the North of England and especially Yorkshire should always remember bitterly. He would be proud of the Royals who followed him, especially Henry VIII.

But this is not an anti-monarchist letter. I believe the monarchy is vitally important to us these days when our sense of Britishness is being diluted by peoples of other countries, cultures and religions threatening to swamp our sense of identity and successful way of life.

So I am not advocating a bicycling monarchy but I do note with interest that there are some awfully nice new Vespa scooters about these days!

M Ward, Barnby Avenue, Lower Grange, Bradford.

SIR - I wish to thank all the retired people who attended the last two meetings about retired people's problems at the Library and City Hall.

After these meetings all retired people should form a management team of one person from each group across the district. This is the only way.

We have the biggest age group of people in the country - let's make our voices heard. Come on and join the fight against discrimination against us.

J R Smith (Retired People's Action Group), Flawith Drive, Fagley.