Readers' letters - May 3

A few years ago local newspapers published many reports of mobile phone mast protests. Vociferous protest groups warned of dire consequences to public health, including brain tumours, that would certainly be caused by the masts. If a phone mast was proposed anywhere near a school, parents, children and possibly teachers turned out in force to protest. Protesters kept in touch with each other by mobile phone to warn of the arrival of a phone mast contractor!None of these dire warnings of doom and disaster has come to pass. The mobile phone has scored a complete victory. As children spill out of school, they are tapping away continuously on their smart phones. They might well suffer a severe crick in the neck from looking downward all the time, but the deadly warnings of the protesters are now seen to have been groundless.Masts are everywhere. They don’t even look like masts any more. The residents of picturesque country villages are clamouring for 4G and high speed broadband. They are installing masts in church spires.Where have all the protesters gone? I wonder if any of them are willing to admit they were wrong?I wonder if the same thing will happen with fracking?Ron SmithLeyland Picture: Residents protest against a phone mast in 2010

immigrationPassport puzzle of WindrushI’m quite in agreement with Mike Smith on Windrush (LP Letters, April 26). Something very odd has happened here for this suddenly to surface, especially as those children would have been adults for many years before the present government came to power. As British children can only travel abroad on a passport held by a parent until they are 16, then any children on that passport would be expected to apply for travel documents of their own on reaching that age, especially if they wanted to travel outside of Britain. Do not the same rules apply to those children travelling from the Caribbean on their parent’s passport?It is said that many of them never bothered to apply for passports of their own but it seems very unusual, in this day and age, that they would never have gone abroad on holiday or back home to visit relations. At that point, being no longer eligible to travel on a parent’s papers, it would or should have been picked up. If they were illegally here, then something should have been done to rectify the matter. If they did apply and got a passport, then they must have been considered to be legally here or else they would not be given a British passport.Christine Crossvia emailfoodCuisine at a snail’s placeWow! I never thought that I would read an article (LP April 28) about snails being bred in Lancashire. Now, had I have been a gardener, no doubt I would have thought about protesting against someone actually breeding this garden pest, but upon really reading the excellent article, I have nothing but admiration for John Lowe and his business partner and manager of L’Escargotiere, Leanne Aspinall, working out from Backridge Farm in The Forest of Bowland.Apart from the traditional way of eating these delicacies, no doubt John and Leanne will be showcasing the possible other ways in which the snails could be used in or combined with other traditional Lancashire delicacies. Just imagine L’Escargot Lancashire Hot Pot or Black Puddings. Then these could be ‘exported’ to other northern counties so that we get a dozen served up in a big Yorkshire Pudding. It seems its versatility may have no bounds. Indeed the greatest irony may come in people consuming the snails in their gardens as they chuck another dozen on the barbecue.Now, John and Leanne, I can’t wait to see your Gastro Pod Cast! Oh and I expect that having brought them over from the continent, the snails would have been ex-cargoes!Neil SwindlehurstWalmer BridgelanguageIt’s geddin’ worse ...In addition to the comments of Mrs Wren (LP Letters, March 29) and Neil Inkley (LP Letters, April 20), there are words across the pond which substitute the letter ‘t’ with the letter ‘d’, such as wodder (water), bedder (better) and hodder (hotter), to name but a few. Other aspects include words like missle (missile) and meer (mirror). On a different note, I am often amused when someone tells me “I ain’t got none”. When I say “then you must have some”, they reply with “I told you, I ain’t got none”. Oh, I’m gedding all hodded up now – I’d bedder cool down with a glass of wodder and say nuffink more!Bruce Maclennanvia email