A mother's thoughts to a real winter - your views (From Keighley News)

A mother's thoughts to a real winter - your views

7:40am Thursday 14th January 2010

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Thoughts of a soldier’s mum

Being a mother of a soldier in the British Army, who has served a tour of Afghanistan and will be returning again this year, I was livid to read the report on the front page of your paper.

Those six months when my boy was away were the worst six months of my life and I have it to face again. Can Helen John imagine what it is like to go to bed every night and be grateful that you haven’t had that dreaded knock at the door but also think you could be woken during the night to be told your son is dead. To then wake to news on the radio that a soldier is dead and wait for the next sentence to see if the family had been informed. If they had been informed the feeling of guilt you had for being happy that your boy was ok because obviously there was a mother out there whose world had just been shattered.

My whole life was consumed with my boy during these times and cry for every single person who has been affected by our soldiers deaths. As for Wootton Bassett becoming a “big showpiece” I have felt nothing but pride in our nation pulling together and showing their appreciation for the sacrifice our wonderful children and their families have made.

If it was possible I would attend every repatriation. How many innocent victims (this includes all the military services) have died at the hands of the suicide bombers and IEDs because of these crackpots.

Helen John do you really think this wouldn’t be happening if we weren’t there? I don’t think so! Get a life.

From a soldier’s VERY PROUD mum

The alternative is a barbaric living hell

You report that a lady called Helen John approved of a group of extremists who intended to protest in Wootton Bassett against this nation's role in the Afghanistan war. Our armed forces are there to defend us from forces that wish to see the creation of a world Caliphate with Sharia law applying in a Britain devoid of any diversity of religion or culture. Representatives of these organisations have openly referred to our Queen as “the enemy”.

I’ve lived and worked in countries where Sharia law applies. If Helen John could go there, which she can’t because she is a woman, she would experience the grim reality of what it means. She would see that our culture, wrought over millennia by our ancestral warriors fighting the jealous efforts of less happier peoples to take us over, remains worth fighting for. If she did get there she would find that the thought police would get her as soon as she spoke out. The courts can order a fascinating range of repulsive, strange and medieval retribution to bring into line those who dare to think or act differently. She would have no legal rights and any physical damage would be covered up with the black garb that the law would require her to wear. Even this would be of little consequence, as she would not be allowed out unless accompanied by a close male relative. Perhaps Helen John should reflect? The only reason that she and her friends, these “protesters”, are able to voice such views without suffering at the hands of the state is because in the 1930s a few people remained proud of our nation, its culture and its independence. They saw the importance of the warlike instincts of our race to defend what is ours. They recognised the consequences of disarmament and opposed another fascist dictatorship in the face of almost overwhelming support for its appeasement. Thank God that we have and retain our brave armed forces to defend us from such a descent into what would be Helen John’s alternative, which is a barbaric living hell.

David Pearson

Old Hall Close, Haworth

Assistance needed to get in touch with BT

I have a Virgin media telephone but live opposite a British Telecom junction cabinet, visited from time to time by BT engineers. I found an expensive looking electronic device in the snow, which was obviously a telephone engineer’s equipment.

I have tried to inform BT about this so they can collect it. Having spent 12 minutes of the 100, 150 and 151 menus I have failed. One is faced with a sequence of select options on the various answering machines. I had got to the point where I thought I might get to speak to a real human, but then the automat asked for my phone number. I keyed it in and he then said, “That is not one of our phones, Goodbye!” Back to square one!

Can anybody tell me how to communicate with BT in less that 12 minutes? I find it impossible. Maybe a real human who works for BT might see this letter and ring me and then arrange to collect the electronic testing device I have.

I have a prayer, “Lord, in your mercy, preserve and protect us from telephone answering menus! Amen.”

Jens Hislop

Haworth 01535 644444

Memories of a real winter

The weather this week has reminded everyone of the winter of 1962/3. At that time I was a 15-year-old pupil at Bradford Grammar School, living at the top of Haworth Road, in Bradford.

Now that was a winter. We even skated on the packed snow on the road outside our house. More interestingly, on more than one occasion during the school holidays, my brother, who was home from his teaching job in Leicester, and I drove to Keighley Tarn in the evening and skated to the lights from numerous car headlights parked on the bank.

Those were the days before central heating when bedroom windows froze on the inside and we went to school in all weathers. I certainly do not remember a day when BGS closed that winter and I have a very good memory.

We had a rear-engined, narrow tyred, go anywhere VW Beetle. We didn’t need a Chelsea tractor to get us around. Mind you drivers were better, more patient and certainly more able to adjust their driving.

Tony Smith,

Hill Clough, Laycock.

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