What does it mean to be English?
Parliament
Dear Editor, Once again we have The Birmingham Post to thank for enabling a crucial debate to take place (April 1). This time its whether or not there should be an English Parliament now that Mr Blair and his cronies have been allowed to carve up the United Kingdom but deny the biggest contributor to the wealth of the United Kingdom the same democratic opportunities.
We in England have every bit as much reason to be as proud of our English history and traditions as the three other nations that make up this great melting pot of ours but over the last eight years it is the English who have been discriminated against.
On many essential forms, some of a legal nature, we English are expected to write British whereas the other British tribes can express directly whether they are Scottish, Irish or Welsh. Is this racialist or not?
As with many other vital aspects of our English/British way of life, healthy debate is stifled and one is made to feel guilty or, at very least, ill at ease, if one wants to be an English nationalist and fly the flag of St George.
Why should we have to sing God Save the Queen when the other British tribes cock a snook at the very idea? Why should it only be at the BBC Proms that we can sing Land of Hope and Glory?
Yes, we have made lots of errors of judgment over the centuries but democracy as we know it in the world today came largely from the English parliamentary system that has evolved over the last 1,000 years.
Why should we be concerned about the break up of the United Kingdom when the other British tribes show repeatedly by their words and actions that they couldnt care less?
England on its own, not having to pay huge subsidies to the rest of the British jigsaw, would not be constantly pre-occupied with balance of payment problems or outdated left wing rhetoric.
We know from umpteen surveys that even when England reach the late stages of a major sports tournament and are in with a real chance to defeat other great sporting nations such as Argentina, Germany or France, more often than not the other British tribes are shouting for the opposition.
KENNETH A JACKSON
Stafford
Stop this bloody trade
Seal hunting
Dear Editor, - The World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) has, for many years, worked to end forms of cruelty to animals overseas, such as bear baiting, bullfighting and captive dolphins.
So to read that Canada is allowing the biggest seal cull for more than 50 years can only be seen as a huge backwards step in animal welfare. Not only is this one of the largest slaughter of marine mammals anywhere on the planet but the methods used to kill these baby seals often subject them to a great deal of suffering.
An independent veterinary study in 2001 found that 42 per cent of these animals are actually skinned alive. The government would not allow livestock in Canada to be killed in this way, by beating animals to death and skinning them alive, so why is this cruelty legal in Canada for baby seals?
The Canadian government justifies the cull by claiming that seals in the north Atlantic destroy cod stocks. But there is no scientific support for this claim. In fact, scientific evidence has shown that the true cause of cod depletion is over-fishing.
I encourage readers to help put a stop to this cruel and unnecessary practice by writing to the Canadian High Commission, 38 Grosvenor Street, London, W1K 4AA.
PHILIP LYMBERY
Director of Communications World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA)
Dear Editor, So the seal hunters are back to bring more hell to the Newfoundland ice floes and the world stands and watches.
How can Canadians consider themselves civilised if they allow this barbarity to continue?
The world must confront the Canadian government and order it to ban seal culls or face the iron fist of sanctions. Canada must be squeezed until the pips squeak. Only by making it suffer will it understand the unbearable suffering it brings.
GRAHAM MILES
Birmingham
Don't be tolerant of bus crime
Transport
Dear Editor, - On the police and bus inspectors periodic fare-dodging sting operations (Post, March 25), it sounds as if your correspondent challenges the sense of catching fare-dodgers and thinks the operation a waste of police time. I, for one, take the opposing view.
In my mind those who evade their fares are likely to be smoking, damaging and scrawling graffiti on the buses, trains, shelters and stations. As to the police presence, anyone using the upstairs of buses will be well used to the smell of smoke wafting about as likely cannabis as tobacco.
This zero tolerance policy keeps me using the buses and I hope it will encourage other right-minded people to do the same.
ROBERT JACKSON,
Edgbaston
Dear Editor, I refer to the article Car Drivers turning right without indicating (Post, March 31). Thank you for highlighting this common and dangerous driving habit. I estimate that about 40 per cent of drivers do not indicate their intentions in turning to the right.
H MAX WHITE
Lay Member of the Central Motorway Police from 1995 to 2000, Bromsgrove
