Letters to the Editor

I started work at the age of 14 in 1943. Conditions were just as bad for us.

In the weaving where I worked, there was constant high noise from the old looms, plenty of oily muck (for want of a better word) and fly (a form of dust from the yarn which flew all over).

This filled the ears, eyes and noses. Everybody - weavers, overlookers, winders and labourers - suffered, not just one type of person.

Where was our compensation? A lucky few got a few quid for deafness and tinnitus. I can't remember anyone getting compensation for breathing problems, cuts, bruises and other ailments attributed to working conditions.

If by any chance the Asians get any compensation, there may be quite a few English textile workers knocking on the Downing Street door.

But should the Government be responsible for compensation? What about the mill owners? Are they guiltless?

Good luck to any textile workers who get any benefit. Let's just make sure it's not just one type of person.

G Long, Leeds Road, Idle.

SIR - Michael Breen of Wrose was quite right to throw doubt upon the value of public consultation on local planning matters (Letters, April 9).

To my knowledge, 125 letters were presented to the Council about the new housing estate in Bolton Hall Road and 28 points of issue were raised, but the Council Executive Committee ruled that they had no relevance to the traffic problems created by the new development.

The irony is that in the main the residents wanted a better scheme.

Since its approval in 1995, local residents have at every opportunity sought to improve the scheme but not one point has been accepted by the closed minds of the planners and politicians.

You cannot have a public consultation system where none of the participants' views are accepted. It is disrespectful to the residents and shows up public consultation in Bradford as a sham.

R J Lacey, Wrose Road, Bradford.

SIR - Recently, in the middle of the night, I made my third trip in one of Bradford's multi-coloured (with flashing blue lights) six-wheeled spaceships complete with green men and women aboard, who were fastening wires to all parts of my body, and putting needles into other bits to take away my pain, and maybe help keep me alive while transporting me to a magic place.

No, not some deep-space planet, but Ward 22 of the BRI - the place where a calm team of professionals go about making ill people well, calming distress, both in patient and in their loved ones.

Making everybody feel a somebody, wanted, and important!

A place where colour or creed has no importance, and where top heart specialists, the full range of expert nursing staff and doctors, along with quality ancillary staff, all carry their responsibilities equally.

I am not certain about "Capitals of Culture", or wasting good money preserving derelict monuments to Victorian slave labour. But of one thing I am certain: money should be put into the BRI - and mainly Ward 22 to enable it to maintain its position as a Beacon of Professional Excellence.

Thank you again, Ward 22.

Ray Hook, Hazelheads, Baildon.

SIR - Waiting times are a thorn in the side of anyone waiting to see a consultant at hospital or even their own doctors, and it's right that we should continue to complain. But is the fault entirely that of the national health system?

Recently I had an appointment at St Luke's Hospital and on the back of the letter advising me of this was the following request: "If you cannot attend this appointment, please let us know".

It then goes on to tell me that approximately 3,200 outpatient appointments are missed every month, by people who couldn't care less about their fellow man and so do not ring or write to cancel, enabling someone who may be in dire need to fill that space.

With this in mind, I contacted two doctors' surgeries asking what their missed appointments were for February.

The first was 179, the second 60.

So patients, instead of blaming hospitals and doctors for having to wait a long time for an appointment, blame your fellow man. They haven't all passed over.

Can it be stopped? Yes. Charge all un-notified missed appointments £10 and if it happens more than three times in any six months, take them off the register.

R H Robinson, Silwood Drive, Eccleshill.

SIR - Why should Judge Gullick receive an award for just doing his job? As far as sentencing rioters goes, I think he has been too lenient.

I propose an award for every policeman on duty that day, for every person in the cleansing department who had to clean up the mess, and for everybody else involved.

Andy Bairsto, Ravenscliffe Avenue, Bradford 10.

SIR - I would like to know if anyone knew my grandfather, William Mitchell who died on September 17, 1978.

My mother (his daughter) is in her late 70s and it is her wish to find out about his life after her mother and he split up when she was six years old.

She knows he was from the Little Horton area. Does any friend or relative wish to fill her in on anything they know? Thank you.

S Meadows, 22 Cringleway, Great Ponton, Grantham, Lincs.

SIR - Before coming to Canada, I trained as an SRN at St Luke's Hospital, Bradford, in the 1960s, and joined the St Luke's Nurses' League as a life-time member.

Since coming to British Columbia, I lost touch with them. I have had no contact with them for at least five years.

If some of your readers know of this League, could they please e-mail me their current address and, possibly, their phone number on sarbijan@shaw.ca, or write to me at the address below.

S Singh, 1 - 639 Arbutus Street, Qualicum Beach, British Columbia, Canada V9K 1P4.

SIR - I am bemused by Eric Firth's letter (April 18) regarding the Council's flying of the Union Flag. I appreciate that I say a great deal but cannot remember expressing any opinion about this matter recently, certainly not in connection with the forthcoming World Cup.

It is my view (one shared by many) that our national flag should fly at all times over public buildings regardless of international sporting events.

Councillor Simon Cooke, Chellow Terrace, Chellow Dene, Bradford 9

SIR - The recent letter from Ms. Murbarak Iqbal (April 10) makes me wonder how she can lift pen to paper under the weight of that enormous chip on her shoulder.

Once again, Ms Iqbal, the fight is against terrorism, not Muslims. The fact that most terrorists in the news at the moment come from Muslim countries is an unfortunate coincidence that possibly Ms. Iqbal could explain to us.

Her hatred of America and Britain astounds me. Was it not they who rescued Muslim Kuwait from the horrors of Saddam Hussein and probably saved Muslim Saudi Arabia from the same fate?

When thousands of Muslims were massacred in the former Yugoslavia, was it not Britain and America who stepped in and saved the remainder from total extinction?

I am at a loss to understand what sort of regime Ms Iqbal prefers.

It would have been interesting to see how she fared if, living in Afghanistan, she had denounced the Taliban the way she denounces Britain. I think, as she was being led, protesting, to Kabul football stadium, she would belatedly have realised what a "civilised" country was!

M Wood, Westercroft View, Northowram.

SIR - So TB is now on the rampage. This was eradicated in England years ago.

As we have all nationalities coming into the country, why aren't they checked medically before they are allowed in? After all, this is a disease that spreads quickly.

D Burnett, Great Horton Road, Bradford.