Readers' letters from Saturday 31 Mar 2007

Not welcome in US

W ITH reference to your article (Cheap dollar fails to lure Brits to US, MEN, March 27) I must confess to Mr Geoff Freeman of Discover America Partnership that I am one of those missing millions. After a decade or more of visiting America I realised that visitors were not now welcome in the USA, merely tolerated. This dawned on me late in 2005 as I was shuffling through security at Newark Airport in my stockinged feet, clutching my trousers to prevent them falling down (my belt had to be removed and scanned), after being photographed, finger-printed and barked at by officious airport staff. I felt humiliated, degraded and intimidated. Every shred of my dignity had been removed and it was there that I made the conscious decision not to travel to America again. I had a choice, and I have exercised it ever since. I am a law-abiding, honest citizen and my reward for having bought an airline ticket to visit friends in America was to be treated almost as a criminal by the paranoid and suspicious US authorities. I am perfectly aware that there has to be security and I am prepared to accept it as long as I am treated with respect, something that seems to be in short supply at American airports. What used to be a happy and exciting time has now become a nightmare. I don’t have to put up with it, and in future I will not be doing so again.

Old Pilot, Didsbury

More cabs please

IN response to ‘cab control’ by Coun Neil Swannick, I have been following comments about availability of taxis in the city centre. Mr Swannick said that restrictions are there to improve service, disabled access, quality and safe service and blamed the Conservatives for the bus war.Nearly 80 per cent of councils in Britain have no restriction on the number of taxis and many of them are Labour controlled. There is no taxi war going on. Private hire is a perfect example. Demand will dictate numbers itself. We only can improve service through enforcement of rules and regulations, not by restricting the numbers.Mr Swannick also talked about disabled access. Disabled people have to come to the city centre to get a taxi. People living three to four miles out of the city can’t get a cab for local journeys. No one will go from the city centre to do a local job and come back to the city centre, especially when drivers are paying £300-plus a week rent. Restriction is not making it safe for the public. Instead we are putting the public at risk by not providing taxis.The council is spending thousands of pounds to conduct demand surveys and recently spent a lot of money to create a waiting list. We are paying taxi marshals to keep the public in a queue. The public need taxis to go home on a freezing cold night, not taxi marshals to keep them in a queue.

Anonymous, Cheetham Hill

Arrogance

IN reply to Less of the love (Postbag, March 26). What an arrogant person you are. We are not all as lucky as you to be able to do our shopping unaided. How lucky you and your late mother were. I am a ‘young’ person over the age of 60 and my local Tesco store staff are in no way patronising.  All of the staff call customers of all ages ‘dear’ or ‘love’, where’s the harm in that? You would have something to say if they were rude to you. I don’t look old, but am not in the best of health and I appreciate a little bit of kindness at the checkout. The staff at Tesco in Droylsden are lovely young men and women. What do you want them to do, swear at you? One day you might need a bit of help yourself, so perhaps then you won’t sound so smug. So carry on Tesco Droylsden being kind and helpful, from one happy person who likes being treated kindly.

J Carr, Droylsden

Beggars belief

THE other day, I saw an obviously wealthy man getting into his huge, flash car, laden with shopping bags. A homeless man asked him if he could ‘help him out’. The rich man replied: ‘Get a job.’ Just goes to show, money certainly can’t buy you everything: least of all an ounce of humanity.

Watchman, Manchester

Cap on wages

PAUL Taylor’s piece about the skewed society (M.E.N., March 28) was brilliant. Isn’t it about time this country set a maximum wage aimed at all the overpaid so-called professionals?At the end of the day they’re only doing a job.The poor bloke who cleans the toilets on the minimum wage in the same company is just as important and should be rewarded with a bigger cut of the profits.These greedy and overpaid people should be taxed to the hilt.

N. Hale, Labour no more

Spoilsports

I WENT to the Michael Bolton concert at the Apollo this week, and like hundreds of other fans I took my camera. Also like other fans I got my camera out hoping to snap a few shots but UNLIKE the others, I was told to put my camera away as I could not use it – it looked ‘too professional’. So while hundreds of people flashed away through the whole concert I sat with my camera in my bag. By the encore I had had enough and got my camera out but was again approached by security staff and told to put it away.  My camera is a quality compact type and no more ‘professional’ than any of the others being used freely.I have always enjoyed the Apollo as a venue but this has seriously changed my opinion.

Sheila Southam, Manchester

You lost. Get over it. Move on

SOME time ago Manchester, together with several other cities situated throughout the UK, entered a bid with hopes that it would become the supercasino destination for the UK. Manchester gave best representation and won. Nobody said Blackpool had a God-given right to be given the first licence for the supercasino. The people of Manchester are 100 per cent behind the super-casino decision. In my view Blackpool’s bid had many flaws – it is a seaside town that attracts many children for days out on the beach with the family. It is no Las Vegas.Yes, Blackpool needs regeneration but not a supercasino. It does not make sense for a gambling Mecca to be situated on the doorstep of the children’s tower, so the people behind the Blackpool bid should take the defeat like adults. Move on and plan a better Blackpool. Well done Manchester, well done Labour. We got the Comm-onwealth Games after the town centre was bombed. We didn’t rest on our laurels. We regenerated, and this is part of the plan.Manchester gave the Labour conference the sparkle of the Big Bang. We will cherish the supercasino and the jobs it will create. We deserve to be regenerated so if the people of Blackpool will stop, look and listen, they will learn from us. Get your act together Blackpool and you too will learn how Manchester has achieved so much.

Michael Ardayfio, Cheetham