Letters, Thursday, December 1

I listened with interest to the comments the other night on TV about the so-called benefits HS2 will bring.

What benefits are we going to receive?

We have a rising population who are going to need feeding and will need houses to live in.

What is this Gover-nment’s answer to this problem?

Gobble up valuable farming land which will be needed in the future to feed the growing population and to demolish hundreds of houses, adding to the crisis in the housing market which we already have.

All for what?

To enable a few business-men to arrive in London 30 minutes earlier.

Lancashire, Yorkshire, North of Leeds, Cumbria and the North East will become the forgotten people of this country.

We are told that we are going to get new platforms 
at Kirkham and Wesham and Poulton as part of improving services electrification 
will bring. I am reliably informed that no parking facilities will be provided at these stations.

The so-called benefits of this HS2 are pie in the sky.

B Fare

Address supplied

current affairs

Evil can be masked

A nasty murderous tyrant has recently died – Fidel Castro, who brought the world to the brink of nuclear war during the Cuban Missile Crisis and brought misery to thousands of Cubans with his Communist ideology, inept economic policies and dictatorship.

Donald Trump, rightly, has described him as a ‘brutal dictator’. Unsurprisingly, Jeremy Corbyn chose the occasion to praise him. His close colleagues did the same.

It was only misguided students who adored this man, who used torture and a vicious campaign against any who criticised his attack on freedom of the press, assembly and speech.

Castro instigated a regime of repression that was lauded by the leaders of the Soviet Union and China and, of course, by their adherents on the Left elsewhere.

Leftists shut their eyes to the gross failures and nastiness of Castro. By sporting a beard, and a forage cap, plus cigar in mouth, the great poser fooled many, just as that other monster Mao did with his avuncular smile.

You can unfortunately fool all too many.

Never forget that evil can be masked.

Dr Barry Clayton

via email

european union

Let’s get on with Brexit

1 ) Does our new Prime Minister STILL believe we should be members of the EU – as she did pre-referendum ?

2 ) Why did she not invoke Article 50 immediately to avoid any challenges from the ‘ remainers’ which she and all her advisors in Whitehall must have anticipated ?

3 ) If it takes 24 months to leave the EU after triggering Article 50, what could she do in 32 months that could not be done in 24 months?

Assuming, of course, she is going to go ahead with Article 50 by the end of March .

We must break ALL ties with the European Union – but not Europe – A.S.A.P.

There will never be another chance!

We must grab our independence now – otherwise Germany and her allies will have achieved what they were unable to achieve through two world wars... ‘domination of Britain’.

Not a bomb dropped nor a shot fired!

The people have spoken –let’s get on with it.

Harvey Carter

Newton

TRAFFIC

First fine at the age of 79

I was wondering how many people have been caught out with the new ruling in Fishergate. From the top of Lune Street, you now turn right and have to go down Winckley Square from 11am to 6pm during shopping hours.

My husband has been driving from the age of 21.

He is now 79 and this week received his first fine, as the route we took out of Lune Street past Debenhams is a bus lane.

Not much has been said beforehand about this new rule.

The next week, after receiving the fine of £60, we took a photo of the new sign.

It’s at the top of a tall lamp post in Lune Street. My husband paid the fine, which was £30 if paid straightaway, but was very upset.

Mrs Meadowcroft

Leyland

dangerous driving

Let’s imagine two scenarios

Let’s imagine two scenarios. Scenario one: a driver knocks down and kills a young child, is charged with causing death by dangerous driving and receives a four-year prison sentence.

Fully rehabilitated, he is released and goes on to make an exemplary contribution to society.

Scenario two: a driver commits a similar offence and receives the maximum 14-year sentence.

Full of hate and resentment, he is released and later knocks down and kills another child.

Which scenario would you rather have?

There is more to justice than retribution and punishment.

Kenneth Horsfield

Address supplied

dangerous driving

Lives should be priority

Why do car drivers who kill people on the roads get off so lightly, yet people who steal money from banks get years behind bars?

Am I to assume money is more important than people’s lives?

G.P

Preston

NOSTALGIA

Grocer was located there

With reference to the ceramic plate in Looking Back (LEP Letters, November 22).

According to the Preston Directory 1891, John Wilson was a pork butcher at 223 North Road and also at 76 Adelphi Street.

At that time, R Myerscough, grocer, was located at 117 and 119 North Road.

S.J

Address supplied