Stop being so miserable

JUST a small plea from the ordinary person in the street. The economy may be in a mess, but it isn’t my fault. I have paid my bills, not spent more than I earned, never used credit and quietly got on with life. My house, I accept, has been earning considerably more than I have over the last few years, but I don’t begrudge it that.

What really annoys me are the whingeing miseries who delight in filling all newspapers and every aspect of the media with a persistent drizzle of gloom and despair. After such rampant inflation in a limited sector of the economy, there was bound to be a crash and a period of adjustment.

The fact is that the majority of people who have bought houses in the last few years will have homes worth considerably more than their mortgages and, as prices fall, more people will be able to afford homes again. There are many winners. There will be losers who over-stretched themselves and I feel deeply for them.

However, the situation is surely being made worse as every reporter in the country now seems dedicated to finding a new statistic that shows things are worse than we thought. It’s no wonder people are panicking. If the TV and newspapers would just quietly report the subject when absolutely necessary, and stop promoting every misery to the front pages, I am sure the effects would be less severe and the problems far shorter lived.

If you tell people everything is going to hell often enough, they will join the queue and accept their fate. Try taking a positive spin on things for a change, and let’s see how quickly we can unite to get ourselves out of this mess.

M Waltham, Wallasey

Make a difference

EURO-MPs like Chris Davies will have the wallets of every Northerner in their hands when they make decisions on transport this autumn. When they’re voting on new laws for clean cars later this month, and on biofuels in October, they have two golden opportunities to do the right thing for the planet – and save us all money in the process.

First up, Euro-MPs have a chance to insist that vehicle manufacturers make smarter cars that use less fuel. This would cut pollution and help to protect families from the rising cost of oil. It’s just common sense. Euro-MPs should vote to make car companies double the fuel efficiency of new vehicles by 2020 – a move supported by three- quarters of the UK public, according to polls.

Anyone feeling the pinch from the recent food price hikes will also be keen for their Euro-MP to vote against EU biofuels targets. According to the World Bank, most of the recent rise in food prices can be blamed on the rush to grow crops for fuel. Euro-MPs could reverse this trend by scrapping biofuels targets and opting for smarter, cleaner, cars instead. This would help us all save cash, while saving the planet, too.

Frank Kennedy, North West Regional Campaigns Co-ordinator, Friends of the Earth

McCartney mistake

I'VE always had a soft spot for Paul McCartney and am proud of his legacy to this city. That is, until now. By accepting an invitation to sing in Israel later this month as part of celebrations to mark the founding of the state, he not only jeopardises his reputation in the city of his birth but, much more importantly, he sends a clear signal of legitimacy to the state of Israel.

In effect, he's saying it's OK to create the biggest and longest refugee problem in the world today and then close your eyes to its consequences; it's OK to occupy another nation for 60 years and construct a wall all round it so that it becomes the biggest prison on earth, and it's OK to fly in the face of international public opinion by continually ignoring UN resolutions over the years. And so we could go on and on.

Is Sir Paul going to sing along in support of all of this? I can only assume he's isn't aware of the trap he's about to fall into, so I appeal to him to get wise and to fellow Liverpudlians to ensure that he does.

Gwen Backwell ,L1

Explain, please

IS THERE any chance of letter writer Mark Holt (Stop the War Coalition) explaining why he is so anti-American? Why aren’t he and his lot banging the drum and marching for the thousands dying in Darfur right now, or marching for the people of Tibet? Or the oppressed of Zimbabwe? Or the colonialism of Russia in Georgia?

J Draper, Everton