Letters to the Editor

What a strange item written by Emma Clayton on the subject of encouraging girls into careers in engineering and construction. Little girls play with dolls, do they?

So did I but at the age of 11, I was devastated after being forced to take needlework at school instead of my preferred option of woodwork.

My first career was in engineering, taking a degree in mechanical engineering over 30 years ago, before the Sex Discrimination Act. One job was particularly noisy, heavy and dirty but not surprisingly I wore ear protectors, used hydraulic hoists and got washed at the end of the day - just the same as my male colleagues.

In my second career, the job entailed long and often anti-social hours, could be very dirty and the financial rewards minimal.

Yes, I became a housewife and mother.

There cannot be many more distasteful jobs than changing dirty terry nappies and cleaning ovens. Discrimination was worse too as there was always that minority of people (male and female) who belittled young mums and housewives.

Emma blames men in industry for discouraging girls by having "girlie" calendars etc. Perhaps she should realise that it could be her sort of prejudices which put girls off these interesting careers.

Jennifer Gregory, Langley Grove, Bingley.

SIR - It really is time the Roman Catholic Diocese of Leeds did the decent thing by the people of Baildon and consigned to purgatory its plans to vandalise the Jenny Lane playing field.

The Diocesan property administrator hides behind the last UDP inspector, saying the Council "needs sites for more housing". True, but why the rush to be first in the queue?

Why the perverse desire to thwart a community that has fought so long and with such a good case?

The sad truth is that the Diocese is acting from purely mercenary motives. It should set a more Christian example and "suffer the little children" to come and play in perpetuity.

Jim Flood, Redburn Drive, Shipley.

SIR - Councillor Thorne (Letters, April 10) spins a fine silk purse from the pig's ear of New Labour policy. He can rehearse all day the litany of Tony Blair's triumphs but it has no purchase on the everyday experiences of traditional Labour voters. Ordinary people can see a sell-out for what it is.

Take council housing. We now have a Labour Government building on the punitive policies of Thatcherism.

Post-war council housing was a major plank in Labour's welfare state - affordable, decent, free from capitalistic abuses of slum landlords etc.

Under the Tories, homes fit for heroes were reduced to derelicts fit for rats.

While his coffers are now bursting, Blair denies sufficient funds to undo the harm. Rather, he offers massive cash inducements to councils to pass the communal housing stock to privateers.

As a result, working-class housing will be returned to the grim realities of market forces (intensifying poverty, hardship, insecurity of tenure, environmental degradation). Meanwhile, exploitative fat cats will prosper.

All power to the Defend Council Housing Campaign (Bradford South) as it challenges a shameful sell-off and sell-out.

George Riseborough, Broad Left Against Blairism (BLAB) prospective Parliamentary candidate for Bradford South and Margaret Riseborough, election agent, Roper Lane, Queensbury.

SIR - I would like, through your column, to express my thanks to Bosom Friends cancer support group for allowing me the privilege of appearing with my wife in their recent fashion show at Pennington's.

I'm sure I speak not only for myself but for all the other men and children models who helped these fabulously brave ladies produce their show.

All the ladies have suffered the trauma of cancer over the past few years and a number of them were still receiving chemotherapy or radiotherapy up to and after the show.

For them to appear on a catwalk, before an audience of 1,000 or more people, was indeed an achievement in itself. But to do it in such a professional manner shows the inner strength, determination and love of life which these ladies have.

It does show that there is life after cancer for most people.

Thanks to all the other people who helped to make the show a success, and a special thanks to Joyce Seymour, our choreographer, whose time and dedication gave us all the confidence to "strut our stuff".

B P Hillam, Delverne Grove, Eccleshill.

SIR - With reference to Angela Allen's letter (April 13) and the Labour Party leaflet which has been distributed in Buttershaw.

Gerry Sutcliffe, the MP for Bradford South, promises "there will be no return to the neglect of Bradford's estates under 18 years of a Conservative Government."

In his own constituency, the last government gave millions for the regeneration of Holme Wood and the estates covered by Royds. In other areas of Bradford, millions were also awarded.

The fact is that Gerry Sutcliffe is a junior whip, which means he helps pass government legislation.

He must therefore agree with government legislation including stock transfer?

Councillor Andrew Smith (Con, Queensbury), Chapel Street, Queensbury.