Readers' letters

Divided and unhappy nation
Hate crimes were already increasing before Brexit, says a readerHate crimes were already increasing before Brexit, says a reader
Hate crimes were already increasing before Brexit, says a reader

As we all know, Brexit saw a huge increase in racial hate crime within the UK.

However, what is less reported in the media is that racial prejudice and hate crime have steadily been on the increase for many years.

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For example, in 2011/2012, racial hate crime incidents reported to the police were recorded at 35,816. Last year, this had increased to 49,419.

What is also generally hidden in the media is that hate crime towards Muslims, gay people and disabled people have also been increasing.

So have incidents of rape, sexual abuse and domestic violence committed towards women.

While there may have been a ‘spike’ in racial hated after Brexit, together with a recent sharp increase in anti-Semitism, these problems go far deeper than any hostility aroused by the European Referendum itself, or by Jeremy Corbyn’s alleged weakness in tackling anti-Semitism within the Labour Party.

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Britain is a deeply divided and unhappy nation full-stop, and not just in terms of inequality or access to resources.

That is something not caused by Brexit nor Corbyn.

Now is the time for British people, including its politicians, to decide what sort of society they actually want to live in.

Leaving the EU may rid some people of their obvious and visible anxiety over immigration, but it certainly won’t make them any happier in the long term, nor put bread on the table of most Brits (working or non-working).

Paul Dodenhoff via email

Frack in south before north

It is clear to me that our nation should exploit its potential wealth of gas and oil.

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Those who oppose are NIMBYs , wild alarmists, and selfish luddites who would prefer us to buy from unreliable and even dangerous despots.

Better our nation is impoverished and politically endangered than that they are inconvenienced.

BUT absolutely it must not be Lancashire first through fracking.

Our nation, and especially southern England, has previously shamelessly exploited Lancashire’s forests, its coal, its world-leading industrial prowess.

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In previous times, southern England grew wealthy on the exploitation of Lancashire.

Now we find that there are probable reserves of gas and oil in Sussex, amongst other places.

We have been patronisingly told by a blimp-like Sussex MP, that Sussex must be preserved in pristine ossification, but the wild wastes of Lancashire and the north can be laid waste as required for the benefit of the intrinsically superior people of the south and their wonderful countryside.

I am a southerner born and raised in formative years. I know that all the best countryside in England lies in the north.

NO drilling in Lancashire before Sussex goes first.

Nigel Taylor, Preston

Tankers and toxic waste

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Much has been said about the unsuitability of the roads around Roseacre to cope with heavy traffic.

Little has been said about what this heavy traffic will carry.

Cuadrilla say that, apart from water, chemicals account for between 0.5-1 per cent of the mixture, which equates to approximately 20-40,000 gallons of chemicals being used in each well. These chemicals will come in tankers. The toxic waste water, which is difficult if not impossible to treat, is to be taken away by tanker.

Not surprising then that Roseacre inhabitants and tourists alike do not want to meet a tanker on their narrow lanes.

Anne Fielding, St Annes

Lodestar led me to romance

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The Lodestar Night Club was a regular ‘haunt’ of my friends and I for many years (LEP Looking Back October 17). You were always guaranteed a good night.

Mrs Grimshaw (Margo) was always around somewhere and she took a great interest in making sure the club was a lively, friendly venue and played the music we, as her patrons, enjoyed.

I met my husband there in October 1970 and we have now been together 46 years. He came to my rescue when, whilst driving to Ribchester, I hit a pothole and my exhaust fell off my old Ford Anglia. He crawled under my car in the wet and tied it up with string.

He emerged with wet Levis and jumper but as my hero.

He is still my hero today!

Without the Lodestar and my old Ford Anglia, we may never have met.

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I am sure that there are still many of us around the area who remember the ‘glory’ days of the Lodestar and wish we could go back in time and enjoy them all over again. I wish!

Bev via email

£15m vision is

a bold affront

I refer to the front page article Bold Front, £15m vision for Harris features new entrance (LEP October 15). I believe this to be a bold affront.

It doesn’t matter where the money comes from or which local authority/organisation is spending it. In these times of cuts and austerity, which are affecting the old, vulnerable and needy, why are local authorities even considering spending such an enormous amount on a building?

How can they consider doing this whilst at the same time making cuts to care services?

People come first!

Absolutely disgusted

Fred Hodson, Penwortham

Use steel from UK not overseas

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Please sign a petition to the Government to use only steel made in the UK for the building of British nuclear submarines, not steel made overseas. Go to www.petitions24.com, enter the section, Recent Petitions, and view petition created October 6, British Nuclear Submarines.

F.E.Sharpe via email