Mothers' feelings to food for thought - your views (From Keighley News)

Mothers' feelings to food for thought - your views

8:23am Thursday 21st January 2010

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Personal message to soldier's proud mum

I would like to make a personal response to “the very proud mum” who asked could I imagine what it must be like to be told your son is dead.

I answered the phone at 5.45pm, on August 1, 1998, to be told that my 20-year-old son had died in a car accident at 9.30am that morning.

From that moment I became aware in a way I never understood before what grief really meant. My understanding has grown, not diminished, and as a mother you would feel exactly the same if this tragedy befell you. The mothers of Afghanistan have these feelings too. Grief is not confined to one nation.

If we want to live in a more compassionate world we ourselves have to become more compassionate, as ordinary citizens.

Governments and religious organisations cannot do this for us. I am an anti-war campaigner and, yes, it does take intelligence to understand why this point of view must be the way forward.

It is up to mothers to put a stop to wholly unproductive wars that blight our lives and make fortunes for the arms industry and the financial institutions that support it.

Helen John

Wren Street, Keighley

Salute to snow hero Arthur

I would like to nominate my neighbour Arthur Senior as our “hero in the snow”.

We at Lowry View would not have been able to get out at all these last few weeks if it had not been for Arthur, who cleared the snow for us each day. Lowry View is a cul-de-sac so we had no chance of ever getting any of the council men to clear our snow. Like many others who live in places that are hard to access, we find it difficult to get help when it snows but unlike them we have had our hero, not one day did he let us down. Arthur is a pensioner of 78 years of age and is himself disabled but he struggled on day after day. Therefore I nominate Arthur as our hero.

Mrs D Meeking

Lowry View, Keighley

Thoughtfulness of friends and families

This year has seen weather reminiscent of the winter of 1947. Greater depth of snow and considerable drifting caused us to walk on the wall tops, to get down the hill, then I walked to Greenhead Lane to school and back home and was proud of my achievements.

Snowploughs were not in evidence and the men folk of the village dug out the roads between Cullingworth to the Guide Inn, Park Lane and Keighley and Bellhorse Lane to Cross Roads.

Drifts at Nether House and Peepo’day were tunnelled to allow a horse and cart to pass through, though these filled up several times when the winds filled up the drifts.

But the reason for this letter is to say a big “thank you” to neighbours, family and friends in the village for their kindness and thoughtfulness during this spell of bad weather.

“I am going down to the shops; do you need anything? has been a frequent remark.

So many people have offered their support and I have been warmed and truly grateful to them for their help.

Adverse conditions bring out the best in Englishmen and Hainworth people are some of the best in England.

Dorothy Hardy

Hainworth Village, Keighley

Food for thought over local produce

Conservative MEPs are involved in a campaign relating to one of the most fundamental decisions we make every day: what food we eat.

In these tough economic times local businesses and farmers need our support. Shop local has become more than just a buzzword, it now relates to the very survival of our local shops and businesses.

We want to see clearer labelling of food.

Currently, under existing legislation, you can buy, for example, a chicken sandwich and it may say produced in the UK on it.

What many readers may not know is that as long as the meat is put between two pieces of bread in the UK it can be called produced in the UK, even if the chicken is from Thailand.

This to us is not acceptable and is misleading. Many people think they are buying British when, in fact, they are buying anything but. Food such as beef and fish when bought on its own is fine and properly labelled. But most of the processed food we all enjoy every day is not.

We are campaigning to have existing legislation changed to reflect the choice and clarity that consumers expect. We want people to know that if it says produced in Britain on the label, the central ingredient is at least of British origin. I would ask people to support us.

TIMOTHY KIRKHOPE

MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber,

Leader of the Conservatives in the European Parliament

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