Readers' letters - May 30

The flowers, teddies, balloons and messages are mounting up outside the little chip shop in my home town of Leyland.

So sad.

My heart goes out to the many children and people who have lost their lives and to all the families left behind to grieve.

I live close by and I have been astounded at the massive turnout.

Young and old, carrying huge bunches of flowers, day-in, day-out.

Little school children, toddlers, teenage boys on bikes, cars – bumper to bumper – slowing down, quietly looking on and paying their respects.

Everybody coming together united.

But then that’s Lancashire for you.

We are more than just clogs and cloth caps!

We are all brothers and sisters here, regardless of our colour or creed.

The terrorists got more than they bargained for when they paid a visit to Manchester.

We are (and always will be) one large extended family.

Hat’s off to our wonderful emergency services and the ever brave policemen.

Not forgetting the general public.

They all did a tremendous job in the most horrendous circumstances.

It’s hard to think about the perpetrators without being blasphemous but I won’t bring myself down to their level.

But I will say this – you can’t build a bonfire and then say night, night!

Sooner or later, you will have to be accountable for your actions.

Joanne Rankin

Leyland

crime

Prioritise police resources

Before politicians get hot under the collar in view of the recent events in Manchester and, as always, look for scapegoats to blame ( surely it was the man who did it?), it might do well to look at how resources are being spent.

For instance if Lancashire Police, and Manchester is Lancashire, were not expected to spend a vast amount of its resources on an equally vast number of police officers every single day to deal with a small minority objecting to fracking in the county, then there would be enough police freed up and able to go out on to the streets.

Whether you believe in fracking or not, what a waste of police time, resources and energy this is.

Surely the events of the last few days puts into perspective where our need lies and it isn’t at the fracking sites of the Fylde.

Break up the protestors, send them home for good, and bingo, more police and more money to use on more important situations, especially in times such as these we are living in.

Whenever anything happens in this country, the first response is to rise up shouting for more money to be found instead of looking at where it is actually being spent and why!

I use the fracking situation simply as an example of the kind of waste that is going on in many organisations at the moment.

C Cross

via email

energy

Is ‘revolution’ worth risks?

The Conservative party manifesto says that the “discovery and extraction of shale gas in the United States has been a revolution” and so pledges to continue the UK dash for gas, stating “We will legislate to change planning law for shale applications”.

However, they fail to acknowledge that there is a rapidly growing body of evidence on the risks and adverse effects of shale gas activities in the US.

These peer reviewed papers (1,200 plus and counting) are available in the PSE Healthy Energy Study Database.

Only last month, there was a new health report from Pennsylvania, which links fracking with increased infant mortality.

Another conflict apparent in the manifesto is between the claim that they want to “uphold our rigorous environmental protections,” and the promise that they will “set up a new shale environmental regulator, which will become a source of expertise”.

People concerned about the shale gas site at Preston New Road might well ask why this development is allowed to happen, given that the Government is admitting here that they don’t have a regulator with the necessary expertise.

Prof Davies of ReFINE has spoken of the need for 50,000 wells across the north of England.

Everyone in areas licensed for petroleum development, and especially residents of the Fylde, need to consider if this ‘revolution’ will be worth all the risks.

If we decide not, then apparently it’s too bad, because “when necessary, major shale planning decisions will be made the responsibility of the National Planning Regime“ !

T Froud

Lytham

politics

Socialist dream or nightmare?

The Labour Party proposes to raise corporation tax from 19 per cent to 26 per cent to fund their spending plans.

That sounds wonderful to the Labour left.

Hammer companies that make profits and distribute the spoils to the poor.

All very socialist, which it should be since the shadow chancellor, a self-confessed Marxist, proposed the policy.

Unfortunately, there are large problems with that policy.

If you increase tax on companies, profits will fall.

Increased profits are necessary to ensure there is sufficient capital to expand the business, ensuring existing employee jobs and vacancies for the unemployed.

Healthy profits are also required to provide dividends to shareholders, who, in the main, are connected to company pension schemes.

So there you have it.

The socialist dream of hammering companies results in three outcomes – job insecurity, more unemployment and dwindling pension pots for the working population. Long live the revolution.

Bernard Darbyshire

via email

TERROR ATTACK

Terrorists want to fuel hatred

The aim of this kind of mass killings of civilians is to divide society and fuel hate among different races and religions living in this country.

Remember, at almost every terrorist attack, there are victims from different religions, colours and races.

Please don’t behave the way terrorists wish you to.

Remember they kill themselves too just to make us divided.

My thoughts are with the families of those innocent victims.

Allan Day

via email