Letters to the Editor - October 19th

Oct 19 2007 Liverpool Daily Post

It is time to deliver

CLLR CLEIN (Daily Post, Oct 5) and Cllr Moffatt (Daily Post, October 10) argue that now is not the time for schools in the Croxteth area to be improved in line with the rest of the city; claiming that recent events require delay.

I would suggest that, given what has happened, now is exactly the time Croxteth should benefit from the proposed massive investment in their secondary schools.

The Government's Building Schools for the Future programme is an excellent way of showing our young people that we believe in them enough to invest in their futures, appreciate the majority who are good kids and want to give them all opportunities to aspire to something better. What better place to do it than Croxteth at present?

Here is a chance to help Croxteth children achieve their dreams and to show those who may stray that there is a better way. However, these calls for delay effectively condemn them to being on the outside looking in whilst other areas benefit.

Croxteth's young people deserve and desperately need investment. They should see it sooner rather than later or else we risk leaving the area behind. I sincerely hope that the councillors are simply misguided in their calls rather than playing some political game because it is a government programme.This city sees enough delay – now is the time to deliver.

Name and address supplied

Public suffering

IN BUSINESSWEEK, in the Daily Post on Wednesday, the main photograph on the first page features Angela Eagle, Wallasey MP and treasury minister, beaming during a visit to a local industrial site.

Are we supposed to believe that she and her colleagues care in the least for the issues confronting the public at this time? In Liverpool, every single member of the public and the business community has been suffering as a result of the postal strike continued by the militant actions of a workforce that has never had it so good.

Crime is running rampant and you cannot open a newspaper without reading about another child being murdered. Drug dealing and usage is rife and binge drinking has now put this area on the map as the alternative “Champions of Europe”.

Car crime, muggings, house repossessions, bankruptcies . . . you name it; it's bad, and it's happening here. Yet, our politicians continue to indulge themselves in patronage and self-adulation as though everything is rosy and they are working hard on our behalf. Newspapers like the Daily Post shun these self- publicists until they start doing something to resolve the big issues that affect us the people.

David Keen, Woolton

Jazz sidelined

I AM disturbed that, to my knowledge, I have heard no mention of jazz music-making in the proposals for the city’s entertainment programme for 2008.

Though progress for the prestige events by top artists such as Sir Paul McCartney and Sir Simon Rattle is well under way, I understood that more Liverpool grassroots musicians would be featured as well.

My particular support is for the vibrant traditional jazz scene in Liverpool.

In pubs and clubs throughout Merseyside numerous bands provide pleasure for mixed audiences of all ages. They might not be found in the Philharmonic Hall (though even its musicians can boast a jazz group) or St George’s Hall (though, in the days before the recent renovations, the magnificent small concert hall hosted jazz musicians such as Chris Barber and Mick Mulligan with George Melly), enthusiastic local cognoscenti know where to find today’s bands.

Did you know that, in their early days, The Beatles played in the interval between jazz performances at the Cavern?

It would be disgraceful if groups such as the Merseysippi Jazz Band which recently passed its 50th birthday and the Blue Magnolia Jass Orchestra which will coincidentally be celebrating its 40th birthday in 2008, be sidelined.

A Moss, Liverpool 18

God’s existence

YOUR readers seem to be interested in the origins and the merit of the observation/ quotation that “there are no atheists in a foxhole”, which was raised in last Tuesday’s column from David Charters.

Ron Formby, editor of the Scottie Press, had heard it from his father and mentioned it to David Charters, who felt that it was a “brilliant” counter to those who deny the existence of God.

Some readers, one an atheist, have since have cast doubt on its brilliance. But it seems to me a very succinct way of saying that, in times of trouble, men, even non-believers, would turn to God, who after all gave man free-will.

Therefore, the foxholes are not the product of God, but man.

Of course, the same sentiment has been expressed by others, but rarely so neatly.

In fact, some non-believers have reversed it by establishing a monument in Alabama to atheists in foxholes. One way or the other, I have to agree that it is a very clever observation. From the research I have done, the origins of the saying are uncertain.

But it has been attributed to Lieutenant-Colonel William J Clear and Lieutenant-Colonel William Casey and the journalist Ernie Pyle, though in his book, Ghost Soldiers, the author Hampton Sides attributes it to Father Cummings, a padre in the Pacific War.

Everyone seems to accept that the saying is American and comes from the Second World War.

Robert Mahon, Southport

So eloquent

I HAVE been interested in the recent correspondence on this page following the comment in David Charters’s Tuesday column that there are no atheists in a foxhole.

Whatever the origin of the quote, it is quite an excellent one which so eloquently sums up the way even in our supposedly secular society we cannot help but consider the existence of a divine being.

Although I was baptised as a Christian, I am no great follower of any particular religion, but I do have to admit in times of crisis I have offered up the occasional prayer.

S Windsmoor, Ormskirk

Postal troubles

I MIGHT be missing something but how hard is it to get someone to explain to Liverpool postmen’s union officials what the content of the national agreement is?

Liza Williams, in yesterday’s Daily Post, said workers in Liverpool were not prepared to go back to work without assurances from local union officials, who were still unclear as to the contents of the national agreement regarding shift patterns.

Unions in other parts of the country seem to have been able to get hold of them and understand them all right. They could phone, email, video conferences and or get together face to face to thrash out the nitty-gritty.

Communication shouldn’t be a problem. Unless they are relying on the post, of course.

Sheila Owen, Maghull

Ugly building

I REALLY want to not say bad things about all the new developments going up in Liverpool, there are enough people who regularly contribute to this letters page doing that. However, I have to say something about the One Park West development in the city centre.

I drive into Liverpool along The Strand every day and have watched this thing go up (at what seems like break-neck speed by the way) and I have to say it is looking like becoming one of the ugliest residential buildings I have ever seen. I understand that it is supposed to be one of the most desirable addresses in the city – and it certainly has an enviable location, but it is not very attractive.

It is starting to look like a ’60s school or something. It is not completely hideous and I wouldn't mind working in it, but it is certainly not somewhere I would like to call home.

S Twist, Halewood

Transport finances

THE idea of part- funding the proposed Liverpool-Kirkby tram line from local business taxes (Daily Post, October 17) is a great one, but it’s nothing new. This is exactly how the cities in France have managed to finance their much-envied state-of-the-art tramlines over recent years.

Your story suggests that the proposed Everton stadium in Kirkby is giving fresh impetus to a high-capacity light rail line, but surely the main reason is already there – its Liverpool city terminus is right alongside the almost-completed Kings Dock stadium and runs through the middle of the new Paradise Street development.

T Martin, Liverpool 12

A merry-go-round

NOT the trams again (Daily Post, October 17). Didn’t we blow enough of our money on this stupid project the first time around?

I cannot believe that anyone in the transport field in Liverpool can possibly be considering getting back on that merry go-round.

No matter how incredible a scheme seems, sometimes you just have to give up the battle. This is one of those times.

J Melling, Liverpool city centre

Time to grow up

ISN’T it time that English football supporters and journalists grew up.

Every defeat by the national side is greeted with calls of “shame” and “disgrace” and calls for the manager’s head.

In fact, England lost narrowly in an away match against Russia, a formidable footballing country.

Let’s keep things in proportion.

S Sullivan, Birkenhead

Real poverty

POVERTY is when one’s primary school classmate informs teacher “Johnny can not come to school today, it’s not his turn for the shoes”.

Now that is what you call real poverty.

JB Watson, via email