Letters to the Editor - August 29th

Aug 29 2007 Liverpool Daily Post

Must reclaim the streets

THE tragic events of the past week in Croxteth Park are a reminder of how innocent people are far too often the victims of mindless criminal behaviour.

An 11-year-old boy should not lose his life in such a despicable way, and everyone’s thoughts and prayers must be with his family at this sad time.

As the elected representatives of the community affected by this outrage, all of the area’s councillors of every political persuasion will support me in asking for the people of the Croxteth, Norris Green and Clubmoor areas to help the Police in whatever way they can with this ongoing inquiry.

It is in everyone’s interests that justice is done.

Most people living within the Croxteth and Norris Green communities are decent, law- abiding folk who would utterly condemn the gangs and thugs terrorising the streets.

The majority of decent citizens of this part of north Liverpool cannot let the criminal minority roam the streets with impunity and literally get away with murder.

Everyone must play their part if we are to reclaim the streets from the marauding gangs and make them safe again.

Cllr Ben Williams, Labour councillor for Clubmoor, Chair, Clubmoor, Croxteth and Norris Green Area Committee

Weak politicians

I WAS born in Croxteth, Liverpool. I grew up in Croxteth. I went to primary school in Norris Green and secondary school in Croxteth.

Every child in my class had married parents; the only boy with a single parent was because his father had died of cancer.

In the four years I was at secondary school, only one boy was sent to Borstal, and he was also expelled.

Only one girl had an illegitimate baby, she later married the father and emigrated to Australia.

On leaving school, every boy and girl started work.

I was at school in Croxteth in the 1960s and the area was a great place for a child to grow up in, and the only shots you would hear being fired was a farmer shooting crows.

Why has that all gone? Because every government since the ’60s has destroyed family values. We have weak politicians, weak policing and weak church leaders; we have continually appeased the criminals, and allowed drug dealers free rein to destroy communities.

No more appeasement if your MPs will not join the fight, get rid of them at the next election. No more broken promises on action on the streets – any one carrying a gun should get 10 years, no parole.

Against the wishes of the majority, the politicians abolished hanging, the reason being that an innocent man could be hung – well, better one innocent man than all the innocent children now dying on the streets of Britain.

Philip Coppell, Liverpool

Right punishment

TO ALL those idiots who are once again harking on about bringing back capital punishment, and how none of this would ever have happened if we still used the cane, I would like I would like to point out two issues.

Firstly, I would be willing to hedge my bets that these are the sort of people who criticise the likes of America and China constantly.

Now, to my mind, this seems somewhat hypocritical, especially as these two countries are the only "developed" countries I can think of that still implement the death penalty.

In America, in particular, it seems every year we get yet another "high-school homicide" story, so it hardly appears to be stopping their youths from annihilating one another.

And this brings me on to my second point.

The death penalty is pretty much the worst thing you can sentence a person too and, unless you have some secret power no one else possesses, it’s the sort of thing you can dish out only once.

Now there’s the pickle.

If I know I’m going to get killed if I shoot one person, but I know I’m also going to get killed if I shoot 10, what do I do?

They can’t do anything worse to me if I shoot the 10 than if I only shoot the one, so I might as well go out with a bang and really make a name for myself.

There’s no way to excuse what happened to Rhys Jones, or the others like him who have had their lives cut tragically short.

But I can’t help but feel there must be better ways of dealing with the monster in this world without becoming monsters ourselves.

L Lane, Wallasey

Change our fabric

IT IS impossible to employ "initiatives", "measures", "policies", "gimmicks" or otherwise to tackle the very serious issues that are affecting contemporary life in Britain.

Jesse James, Rhys Jones and all of the other children that have been killed will inevitably spend some time in the media spotlight before simply becoming another statistic in another report which makes the usual series of "magic pill" recommendations on how to resolve the "underlying" or "key" issues.

Society is rapidly descending into an environment of perceived injustice inhabited by a polarised mix of those with and those without.

The result of this will surely be anarchy, extreme politics and instability?

Over recent decades in Britain, it is the case that:

Heavy industry has capitulated, resulting in massive unemploy- ment and a complete refocus of our economy on the skilled sectors;

School leavers must have recognised and satisfactory qualifications if they wish to gain any kind of employment whatsoever;

Reliance on the state has increased massively and is now the norm for some parts of society;

Education systems have been slow in their evolution – resulting in many children becoming disenfranchised at an early age and not seeking to better their lives or feeling that they cannot better their lives.

The Human Rights Act has (rightly) asserted the rights of the individual – however, it remains open to exploitation.

These are desperate times and it is now that the Government must act to provide us with a better future for our country.

Forget politics, forget spin and forget electoral polls – it is time for the fabric of Britain to change.

M Anderson, via e-mail

Support for family

I WAS at the Everton game this weekend and I just want to say well done to the club and the fans for agreeing to applaud a young lad’s life.

It was the right thing to do and seemed far more fitting, and far more moving, than a one-minute silence ever could have.

I won’t write reams about the bravery of Rhys’s family – it has been done already by people far more talented than me, but I hope they can take some strength from the fact that the people of Liverpool, blue and red, are behind them.

T Jackson, Liverpool

Shocking state

THE state of our country at the moment is truly shocking.

How ever did it come to be this bad? Actually, I already know the answer to that.

If aliens were suddenly to land on this planet and ask the rulers of Britain how they are planning to fix the social disorder problems of the past 10 years – "twenty-four hour drinking", "easier access to gambling" and "fewer bobbies on the beat" – they would laugh in our faces.

Although we have banned fox hunting, so maybe it’s not all bad.

H Hamilton, Garston

Service underspend

I NOTE Cllr Jane Corbett’s comments in Saturday’s Daily Post regarding the £80,000 underspend on youth service in the Croxteth area in 2006-7.

She is incorrect in claiming that she was "unable to get to the bottom of" why such an underspend occurred.

Although youth service has not been in my portfolio since January, 2006, I was responsible for leading on the introduction of the new funding formula which allocates monies according to the number of young people in each area with significant extra funding for poorer areas.

This was due for full implementation on April 1, 2006, and involved some movement of staff between areas.

The main reason for this underspend was the five to six- month delay in implementing the changeover.

And the main cause of that? The fact that – without ever proposing any viable alternative – the Labour Group used every tactic they could time after time to block the approval of this change by the council.

Cllr Paul Clein, executive member for Children’s Services, Liverpool City Council

Travel costs

RE: "DISABLED veteran upset at medal presentation snub" (Daily Post, August 20).

To some extent, I do sympathise with Sefton councillor Jack Colbert who served his country so well and expected the MoD to defray the cost of his trip to London to receive his Veterans Badge.

I received my own Veterans Badge last year in recognition of my RAF service from 1950 to 1954.

It did not worry me that I, along with hundreds of thousands of other veterans, received my badge through the post and have since proudly worn it.

With such an enormous number of veterans entitled to claim their badge, it would be totally unrealistic and financially unsustainable to expect the MoD to pay travel costs.

Cllr Colbert should rejoice in the fact that he had been given the privilege to receive his badge in London, rather than by post like almost every other veteran.

Brian J Noon, Great Crosby

Train help

MAY I, through your newspaper, thank the two ladies who came to my aid when I felt dizzy on an over-crowded Merseyrail train.

It was quite a scary experience and they were kind enough to offer me a seat and make sure I was all right.

Name and address supplied