Letters to the Editor - October 22nd

Oct 22 2007 Liverpool Daily Post

Jazz scene is still healthy

AS A jazz fan, I’d like to reassure your correspondent A Moss (Daily Post, October 19) that, contrary to his/her experience, there have been plenty of mentions of jazz in the planning for next year’s – and indeed the current year’s – programmes in the city region.

Jazz is a very broad spectrum of music these days of course, and whilst the writer is right in saying that there is a healthy local scene he is perhaps less accurate in commenting that there’s no jazz at the Philharmonic Hall. Trad jazz afficionados turned out in great numbers for the visit of New Orleans’ Preservation Hall band recently, whilst those with more recent tastes are well served in upcoming events including Jan Garbarek in November, and the Fresh Festival (January 4-6) which includes the Wayne Shorter Quartet in concert with the RLPO and a load of other artists of very contemporary styles.

In addition to this, there’s now a frequent programme of jazz club events in the Rodewald Suite, at the Phil, including a lot of emerging talent from the region and farther afield.

Elsewhere, there’s a very special season planned by Southport Melodic Jazz Club in the months leading up to next year’s Southport International Jazz Festival. Mr Moss might also wish to look up an organisation called Liverpool Jazz, who have been promoted sporadically at the Palm House and elsewhere in recent times.

My own observation is that the jazz scene in Liverpool is healthier than it has been for a long time, and good things are bound to emerge from it and be added to it in the months and years to come. It may be that there’s room for more trad, and I’m sure venue programmers will bear that in mind.

Simon Glinn, executive director, Philharmonic Hall & Events

Supporting troops

YOUR story headlined “Mersey troops denied fresh rations” (Daily Post, October 12) creates the impression that rations are being deliberately withheld. This is not the case. Nor is it true that our troops’ welfare is a low priority.

At all levels of the chain of command, every effort is made to support those on the front line. They are working hard and many face significant danger on a daily basis. Where it is possible for troops to be catered for centrally on fresh food, this is done.

Where it is not possible, troops have operational ration packs. These are designed to sustain people who are living in the field and they contain all the ingredients needed to provide a balanced diet, and as your article states, soldiers living on these rations are also issued with a warm weather supplement.

Our troops in forward operating bases and main bases have what they need: combat supplies (food, water, fuel and ammunition) and equipment. Furthermore, going without fresh food for lengthy periods is hardly exceptional in tough operational conditions. All soldiers know that. The Task Force Commander has conducted numerous visits to his troops on the ground recently and has seen strong morale. Our troops are very committed and have the ability to do what is needed.

Lt Col Richard Eaton, Headquarters Task Force, Helmand

Name change

I REFER to the Daily Post article (October 15) about the lack of promotion of public transport services from the airport to travellers, particularly this mysterious “Liverpool South Parkway” whatever-it-is.

I am a native Liverpudlian, but even I do not know where this Parkway place is, let alone the station at its southern aspect. I know of no “Parkway” district and all its publicity consists of photographs of ugly concrete and glass rather than anything useful (such as a map).

I was told last evening that this place is actually Allerton Station.

So why change a known, genuine name for some invented pseudo-American nonsense that bears no relation to geography or reality?

The idea is to make travel simple, convenient and easy for people, not baffle them with invented place names of worthless provenance.

Whatever will they think of next, renaming the Town Hall “The Ponderos”?

G Johnson, via email

Buying tickets

GOING to work in the morning can often be a misery with all the road works and delays while parents drop their children at school, as well as the more routine queues on busy roads.

Similarly, the Merseyrail trains are nearly always full at the peak hours, meaning that many people have to stand in overcrowded carriages.

But even more annoying than that is the queue to buy tickets at the railway stations.

At the very busy Birkenhead Park station, there is usually only one kiosk open. What makes matters far worse, though, are customers buying season tickets, or trying to arrange complicated journeys.

Surely, these people realise that it would be better to do this at non-peak hours. Dozens of people, maybe hundreds, are missing their trains because of it, with queues running on to the street.

Another solution would be to have both kiosks open. But it seems very unfashionable these days to have people actually doing something useful, instead of attending meetings or involved in marketing exercises.

L Harris (Mrs), Claughton, Birkenhead

A major eyesore

I NOTICE that your website has yet another artist’s impression of what the Lime Street area could look like if a new proposal to bring trams back to the Liverpool is agreed and carried through by 2010. This picture, just like all the publicity photos for this area, is taken from an angle that makes it look as if St John’s Precinct and the Holiday Inn perched on top do not exist.

It begs the question, when will Land Securities get the message that their properties in Lime Street are a major eyesore? The city council and Liverpool Vision should stop pussyfooting around and demand that a firm time frame is set for this site to be completely redeveloped. It is crying out for a classically designed market building that is more befitting an area that contains such wonderful architecture as St George’s Hall and the other buildings off William Brown Street, not another cheap fix.

Name and address supplied

God’s existence

RE: RECENT discussion of God. The existence of God is easily demonstrated when we examine things from the perspective of information. I encourage readers to study the work of Dr Werner Gitt, an information scientist who wrote the book “In the beginning was information”. He notes that information is a feature of all living things, and that information never arises without an intelligent source.

The DNA code of life contains an enormous amount of information. Therefore, the sender of the information for life must have been supremely intelligent, and we can reasonably conclude there must be a source of infinite intelligence, ie, an almighty God. This information perspective shows atheism to be false.

I wish our Churches taught not just the important spiritual lessons from scripture, but how to powerfully defend our faith from those who seek to deny the existence of God and his Word.

Sharon Roberts, Quebec Quay

In times of crisis

I HAVE been interested to read the letters about the quotation “there are no atheists in a foxhole”. Some people seem to think it is very good, with others taking the opposite view.

But for me it brought back memories of my mother. She used to say that, in the Blitz in the war, everyone prayed.

The churches were also packed. It seems a pity that it requires a crisis to bring people to God.

Doreen Johnson, Bootle

PR disaster

LIKE some rotten tooth, the Mathew Street report has to be slowly and painfully extracted from those who ordered it.

Yet, in one startling sentence, the leader of the city council tells us all we need to know about Liverpool’s lack of accountable leadership.

Defending the delay in publication, he tells us: “I requested the independent, internal investigation and was therefore entitled to see it first.”

An internal report cannot be “independent.” Even Cllr Bradley’s predecessor, Cllr Mike Storey, now admits an outside inquiry should have been ordered.

Mathew Street needed someone to take the reins to make it happen, or to take the rap when it didn’t. Our civic leaders are happy to spend £320,000 on outside consultants to get good PR (Daily Post, October 18). But they prefer insiders to pick over the debris of their biggest public relations disaster.

Liam Fogarty, chair of amayorforliverpool.org

Council antics

AFTER reading the report on October 18 in the Daily Post regarding Cllr Warren Bradley’s reluctance to reveal the changes he has requested to be made to the internal council report regarding the Mathew Street fiasco, why am I not the least bit surprised?

This is the man who has seen a once proud city brought to its knees, and made Liverpool the laughing stock of the country. In his time of leader of the city council, every week we hear of another disaster or impending disaster.

If it was not so desperately sad it would be funny, and if there are any film producers out there watching the antics of this Lib-Dem council, there is enough material out there to make at least two or three new Carry On films.

FK, Knotty Ash

A lasting monument

ISN’T it about time Liverpool came up with a lasting monument for its Capital of Culture year?

Like the Eiffel Tower, in Paris, or the Brandenburg Gate, in Berlin, we need a worldwide recognisable symbol for the city.

What do we have instead? The Liver Building! Hardly grand or eye-catching enough to become an international symbol.

P Harris, Aigburth