Readers' letters - November 22

I have great admiration for Edgar Wallace who, last week, sacrificed his dream to open a casino in the heart of the city by selling Fives to Simon Rigby, so that progress can be made in the regeneration of the city centre.

Preston 50 years ago had two casinos, Club Royale and The Flamingo, which attracted international stars to entertain the members.

I had the pleasure of introducing, amongst many others, Dorothy Squires (wife of Roger Moore) and Solomon King, singing his worldwide smash hit recording of She Wears My Ring.

Surely in this new century we are more able and sophisticated than we where in the 1960s, and have better controls in place.

Simon and Edgar have put a tremendous amount of time, energy, and money into Preston.

Edgar’s investment in not only maintaining, but improving the facilities at Fives has cost a small fortune. He has helped preserve this magnificent building for posterity.

Who knows what condition this historic building would have been in but for the interest of Edgar Wallace?

These two entrepreneurs, who have the interest of the city foremost in their minds, deserve to be backed 100 per cent.

The city council should use every means at their disposal to make this great scheme a reality, which will benefit the rate payers, draw in people from all over the county and attract other ventures.

Preston was, and is, a very historic town/city. I have, for some time, thought we should have something that makes us more unique, and that is to create an Honours System for people who have given their all to make the lives of their fellow citizens in Preston much better.

Half a dozen people (for discussion) – including a figure from the past– would be rewarded with an award every year. This would be called something like M.P.P.L (Member of Proud Preston Lamb) or The Order of the Lamb ( O.L ).

I am sure Edgar and Simon would very much qualify for an award, but this wouldn’t be just one section of society. It would cover every facet – from people who keep our streets clean to health, environment, law and so on. Let’s add another P to make it Proud Progressive Preston.

Tony Slater via email

Brexit and creativity

The cultural industries of the UK are the envy of the world. Statistics show they managed to continue growing throughout the recent 2008 recession and are now growing three times faster than the rest of the economy.

They account for 1.9 million jobs and contributes £84bn to our economy. Unlikely promotional subjects such as Shakespeare, Harry Potter and James Bond are providing magnets for UK tourism.

International video gaming and music industries – we are the world’s second largest exporter of music – and the British film and TV makers’ products are all providing worldwide winners, grossing millions.

Surely this is all good news for our economy. This should encourage these other British industries, who we hear are actively considering leaving the UK because of the uncertainty caused by the US Election result, together with Brexit vote delays, which the Government is now unable to process quickly enough.

Our industrial history of the UK being ahead of the curve when it comes to industry innovation and competition should encourage these firms to also consider the costs involved in having to move back here when these short-term uncertainties has been overcome.

Also the unknowns generated by the forthcoming 2017 European elections in Italy, France and Germany may also produce outcomes which may render both our triggering of Article 50 to leave the EU and the trouble- making ‘Remoaners’ in our Parliament irrelevant.

E J Tilley, Chorley

It’s now time to move forward

It seems that there are quite a number of people who voted Remain in the EU referendum who are still in denial that the majority vote was to leave the EU.

Surely those people who actually voted must have understood and accepted that this was a fair and democratic way of dealing with this issue and equally accepted that the majority vote, which was clearly stated on the ballot paper, would be binding in empowering the Government to carry out the will of the majority. If this was not so, then surely there would be no point in having a referendum and no one would have voted!

The most important concerns for very many of those who voted to Leave were loss of independence, border controls and illegal immigration. With regard to illegal immigrants in particular, it is absurd that we enact laws to deal with criminal acts, but the provisions of the human rights act and European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) interventions make applying those laws in itself illegal. This means a person who is convicted of entering the UK illegally, whose identity and past history is unknown, and who may indeed have a criminal record, cannot be deported because of human rights legislation.

The only solution to this is to repeal the human rights act or give the contract for running the immigration services/ border control to a car parking enforcement agency, because motorists who have been given a fixed penalty parking fine will know how difficult it is to avoid paying it.

Over the next few years, the Government will be engaged in very complex and difficult Brexit negotiations. I can fully appreciate the disappointment felt by the Remain voters but urge them to now move forward and support the Government’s efforts to achieve the best possible Brexit outcome that will benefit all of us.

Mike Gleeson, Fulwood

Problems with cucumbers

In these days proclaiming “dignity for the elderly”, I must draw your attention to the problems caused by cucumbers.

Our fingers at age 80 are not as nimble as they were and injuries are often caused by the dreadful plastic packaging in which they are wrapped. Why can’t we buy cucumbers as they were when we were young to help us with our culinary efforts?

Mrs MW Whitaker via email