Letters to the Editor

In what respect is the library (built 1967) outdated? It is not usual to pull down a 35-year-old building because the boiler and lifts need replacing. And do they? I've used the sixth floor local history library two or three times a week for the past six months and never had any problem with the lifts.

But what is a "digital technology centre"? And what are these "creative industries" for which the centre will provide training and research? We're told the feasibility study will cost £4,000. What will the whole enterprise cost? All this to retain "talented people" in the city. But how will it benefit the rest of us, who will have to pay for it?

The Central Library lent 370,000 books last year. If library use has gone down by over half in the last ten years, you provide the reason - Bradford spends less on books than all but two metropolitan authorities.

How many of us will be able - or need - to use a digital technology centre?

Joan Knott, Eaton Road, Ilkley.

SIR - I was appalled to read your February 24 coverage of the glorification of the abhorrent activity of Bradford Games Club playing "Magic" in the centre of Bradford every Sunday, of all days.

The gathering takes place in the Gingerbread Club, a building supposedly dedicated to helping single parents bring their families up on a limited budget. How can a figure of up to £100 paid for one card be justified by this organisation?

If we are ever to find peace in this city, we should guard our children from these demonic influences. If I was the Chief Constable responsible for Bradford, I would be seriously looking into the fact that children of 13 years of age are members of such an organisation.

Gillian Alcock, Briggs Grove, Wibsey.

SIR - Mr Hargreaves (Letters, February 25) should give due credit to the T&A for trying to present a balanced debate on important issues like the Iraqi crisis. Here are some facts and questions for Mr Hargreaves and others who want a war with Iraq to mull over:

Despite the US/UK double standards in the Middle East, and 12 years of sanctions and illegal air attacks, Iraq has not threatened or attacked the US/UK.

There is no proven link between al Qaida, and none of the plane hijackers on September 11 were from Iraq, so why attack Iraq?

Israel and North Korea have weapons of mass destruction, and they have refused to comply with countless UN resolutions, so why the double standards on Iraq?

The only country which has used weapons of mass destruction on a grand scale is the US (nuclear bombs on Japan, depleted uranium in Gulf War against Iraq, Agent Orange in Vietnam). Why don't we hear much about these atrocities?

The chemical attack at Halabja by Saddam's forces was awful, but as suppliers of the chemical weapons, the US and UK are also guilty of this crime.

Dr Mohammed Iqbal, Grasleigh Way, Allerton

SIR - I am following the Karl Dallas saga with interest. Like Karl, I submitted poetry to a recent Peace Anthology promoted in Bradford and am totally opposed to the impending war against Iraq.

Yet I can't but help having certain reservations regarding Mr Dallas's current situation as a guest of the Iraqi government.

I have become increasingly aware that the protests are more anti-American than anti-war.

Mr Dallas will be of my age group. Was he with me, I wonder, when as a schoolboy I applauded the GIs who appeared in Bradford during the 1939/45 war? And was he with me in the Sinai Desert in 1948 when Arabs and Israelis were in confrontation? And where was he when Saddam Hussein slaughtered the Kurds?

I suggest (with respect) that Karl lays down his old Martin guitar for a while and journeys north (without the "minders" who will be among his new friends) to have a quiet word with the Kurdish people who barely scrape a living there. Then and only then can he make fair and proper judgement.

Hate George Bush by all means, Karl but please, please, don't vilify the lovely, generous American people.

Frank Dickinson, Nab Wood Crescent, Shipley.

SIR - May I endorse the letter of J E Ball of February 27 castigating an NCO of the illustrious Royal Marines who I believe are trained to "rough it a little" in the course of their service life. But having said that, and having served 24 years when they were "feeding them and not needing them" (and pleased for that!) I must point out that if food is scarce/poor/non-existent prior to battle, the poor beggars are likely to starve to death once the punch-up starts so let's get things in the right perspective and recognise where the blame lies.

That can only be in the court of Mr Buff Hoon - the tourist Secretary of War (or whatever his title is). If the powers-that-be will not release the funds for proper feeding and kitting then let us roast THEM and not the poor serviceman at the sticky end of nothing.

Phil Boase, Elizabeth Street, Wyke

SIR - I would like to pose some questions to all the so-called religious leaders, especially the fundamental Muslims who are always throwing Islam into our faces.

If Christians say or do anything some Muslims don't like, we are called racists, but they are just as racist.

Do not forget, there are many Gods worshipped throughout the world.

Which is the most powerful God? If he is so powerful, why does he allow thousands to die in Asia from natural disasters, earthquakes etc? Why does he allow 20 million to die of Aids, and thousands to die of starvation and other diseases in Africa and the terrorism attacks in America and Palestine?

You cannot blame the western world for all the fatalities. Is he a kind and benign God, or is he just a cynical God who does not care, no matter how much we pray?

I am beginning to think God has emerged down the ages from tales around camp fires.

N Brown, Peterborough Place, Undercliffe.

SIR - CAMRA is expressing concern at the dwindling number of pub-goers. I'm surprised they're surprised.

Pubs can be pretty unwelcoming places. Some go to great lengths to exclude children or non-locals or dirty boots or all three. Some advertise good food but to get it you have to be lucky with the day and time you arrive.

Many stick to the old licensing hours and are closed altogether when you want them.

Almost all are full of smoke. Real Air would mean more to many people than Real Ale.

Jim Flood, Redburn Drive, Shipley

SIR - In reply to my friend and former colleague Sid Brown's request for the source of a quotation concerning the Romans and peace (T&A, February 28), might I direct him to Tacitus's Life of Julius Agricola in which the author describes his famous father-in-law's invasion of Northern Britain and the battle of Mons Graupius (c83AD) which ended Pictish resistance to the Romans.

Before the battle the leader of the Picts, Calgacus, whipped up his army with a speech which included the words: "These plunderers of the world, after exhausting the land by their devastations, are rifling the ocean . . . To ravage, to slaughter, to usurp, they call empire; and where they make a desert, they call it peace.'

Barry M Marsden, Otley Road, Eldwick

SIR - Your correspondent Sid Brown quotes or, more properly, misquotes Tacitus in Chapter 30 of Agricola: "They make a wilderness and call it peace" (SOLITUDINEM FACIUNT PACEM APPELLANT), N.B. wilderness, not desert.

Bryan Owram, Main Street, Esholt

SIR - How kind of the multitude of well-read folk who contacted me about my query about "You make a desert and call it peace" misquotation.

Many mentioned that its author, Tacitus, is better translated in terms of "wilderness" rather than "desert" but, most memorably, one anonymous respectable gentleman (from Ilkley - where else?) on hearing my Cockney twang wondered if I was gettIng mixed up with the word "dessert" about which, I believe, the authority is the gorgeous Nigella Lawson. Despite my plebian status even I know this is something best enjoyed on the table after we've had us dinner.

Sid Brown, Glenbhurst Road, Shipley