NEWS of further delays to the proposed relief road to the Port of Liverpool poses these questions once more.
Does this city and region wish to come into the 21st century or not?
Is it the intention of our political and intellectual “leaders” to sit forever picking 19th-century fluff out of a collective navel while shedding crocodile tears for an era that never really existed, or, even worse, stumble over every blade of grass or greenery in front of them?
Why is it that almost every major project that seeks to improve our economic prospects hits a wall of bureaucratic bungling? Is it any wonder our city's enemies often feel all they have to do is sit back and grin while the locals do little more than prove just how small- minded some people can be?
The port has made a remarkable recovery from the dark days of reduced tonnage in the 1980s. The future of the city and region depends heavily on its future trading success. Without it, we will stand still at best and will almost certainly go into a decline to make the last 50 years look like a picnic.
Either use the opportunities or lose them. And, if you lose them through your own fault, don't bother whining to the rest of the country. Nobody will be listening.
Michael Durkin, L3
Overdue honour
WRITING as a lung cancer patient, it was great to hear the news that Professor Raymond Donnelly, founder of the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation, has been awarded an MBE for his services to cancer. This is great news and long overdue.
Prof Donnelly is a caring person and a man of great vision. Recognising the need to give lung cancer patients a better chance, he launched the Lung Cancer Foundation, giving hope to lung cancer patients the world over.
My own memories of Mr Donnelly go back to 1989. I had just been diagnosed with lung cancer and given a prognosis of three months. I was so ill you wouldn’t have given a penny for my chances of surviving. There was a delay in my papers being sent to Broadgreen hospital from the Royal and things were at a standstill. I can vividly remember him sitting at my bedside, and saying to his team: “This man has been through enough, we will operate tomorrow”.
Today, more than 20 years later, thanks to Mr Donnelly, I have survived and lived to see him honoured for all his hard work. I can only say it should have been a Knighthood, with a Victoria Cross thrown in for good measure.
Terry Kavanagh, L18
Refugee Week
THIS week (June 15-21) marks Refugee Week, a welcome opportunity to reflect upon the experiences of refugees and asylum seekers, and celebrate the contribution they make to life in the UK.
There are many myths and stereotypes around this vulnerable group, and that is why this year the British Red Cross is urging people to look beyond the refugee and asylum seeker labels, and see people as the individuals they are.
A British Red Cross- commissioned ICM poll found that nearly a quarter of people believe 100,000 or more asylum seekers come to the UK each year. Four times the actual figure of around 25,000.
On average, people also think the UK is home to one-in-four of the world’s asylum seekers, when in fact only around 3% seek refuge in this country.
Reassuringly, however, 92% of people have positive associations with refugees living in the UK.
Confusion and misunder-standing should not be allowed to erode the UK’s long tradition of providing sanctuary for people fleeing persecution.
Refugees and asylum seekers make massive positive contributions – socially, culturally and economically – to life here.
Readers can see the stories of three people who have found refuge in the UK and rebuilt their lives by visiting www. lookbeyondthelabel.org
Eric, Aldijana and Ticha are just three from thousands of people who, forced from their home countries, have found safety and a new life in the UK. Each has their own story to tell and their own contribution to bring.
Refugee Week gives us the chance to not only celebrate individuals like these, but also to take pride in our own role in offering safety to those in desperate need.
Yours thankfully,
Sir Nick Young, Chief Executive, British Red Cross
On reflection . . .
I FEEL that Mr Brocklebank (Daily Post, June 16) has been too harsh about the black pyramids at Mann Island.
They are not without merit, in that they reflect the elegant Port of Liverpool building.
MF Dinsmore, Wallasey
Best of a bad lot
THERE certainly should be a general election, but H Jonas does not seem to have understood that to elect a Conservative government would be to elect only the best of a bad lot (Letters, June 16).
The country really needs a party of Restoration; a party capable of fulfilling some obvious and common-sense policies, prepared to cut Gordian Knots and proclaim a few pragmatic sanctions.
Such a party could do all that H Jonas expects of it, as well as, among other things, disengaging from the EU, introducing a national wage and National Service, solving the education problem by simply recovering some forgotten lore and sorting out the law racket. It would also admit the true seriousness of the population problem.
The UK is not yet a fully oppressed state, but many reports point to it moving in that direction. The election of a responsible government cannot happen too soon, otherwise the betrayal will become complete, leaving whoever inherits the legacy a choice between resistance or submission.
JF Lambert, Mossley Hill
