Readers' letters from Saturday 30 Aug 2008

Watching Big brother

LOVE or loathe Big Brother, it certainly has an effect on the level of youth nuisance where I live. Since the start of the programme (and I’ve observed this for about five years) the number of young people on the streets goes down to a trickle. The trouble starts up again as the programme ends – gangs come back, drinking, younger kids get up to mischief with fireworks, starting rubbish fires and so on. My theory is that the programme gives some structure to young lives and something to discuss with mates or even parents. It shows that young people CAN be engaged.

People watcher, Newton Heath

Dance classes

I RECENTLY read the letters in Postbag about people who want a Fifties and Sixties music venue. I thought it was good how it enabled others to make contact with people of the same mind and this in turn made me think about the kids who hang around our streets with nothing to do and who sometimes find themselves getting involved with drugs and guns. Although there are places available for these kids to go to, there are not enough. My boyfriend has had the idea for a long time about how to not only get kids off the street but to also help them realise talents that they may have by starting up a street dance and exercise class for youngsters. Maybe others of a similar mind can make contact with us through Postbag and maybe something can be born that will make a difference to our kids and our streets.

TJ, Manchester

Police the buses

I HAVE just returned from Manchester on a number 17 bus. It was about 4pm and the bus was not very full. I was reading my MEN when I was aware that a man at the back of the bus was asking someone to ‘take your feet off the seat please’.He asked twice and I gather he was being ignored because he then got up to alight at Moston Lane and was telling the driver what had happened.As he did, the man who had his feet on the seat swaggered to the front and squared up to him like a boxer. He demanded to know why the man had spoken to him and threatened violence.A lady got up quietly from her seat and spoke to him and when the two men got off the bus returned to her seat saying that she thought it was about time buses were policed.I would like to say how brave I thought that lady was. The first man who complained was also trying to be a good citizen. These days many of us bury our heads in our papers and ignore things out of fear of reprisals.So well done to the lady in the lilac coat and fair hair, probably on her way home from work and sick of what we have to put up with on the bus journeys.And her idea of police on buses is an excellent one.What do others think?

Another worried passenger

Thief collared

I WOULD like to thank the two gentleman who came to my assistance at the REM concert at Lancashire Cricket ground. While I was watching the concert I was pickpocketed to the tune of £80. I realised straightaway that my money had been taken by a man who had just brushed past me, and I challenged him to return my money. Needless to say he denied having taken anything, but during the disturbance two chaps intervened on my behalf and as a consequence he threw my money to the floor. I can’t begin to express how upset and angry I was at having been a victim of such an obvious crime, but thanks to the actions of these two men I got my money back. It proved to me what I already suspected, that for every low-life out there, there is an exceptional person and last Sunday I had the good fortune to meet two. Many thanks.

Elaine Clews, Manchester

Police priorities

WHAT are we paying our police for? Are they busting drug dealers, stopping robbers, confronting violent offenders? As far as I can see, this is far from their priority. For the fifth time now, on my way into Manchester, I have come across a mass of police officers stopping drivers who have illegally spaced number plates or no car tax. We are talking about some serious force and expense here. Over eight vehicles and up to 20 officers. I have never seen such a show of manpower and find this use of it disgusting and a waste of resources.They should incorporate car tax into petrol charges so the more fuel you use, the more you pay and then car tax could be a thing of the past. Come on GMP, fight real crime and get our streets safer.

Manchester Worker

Fast food need not be junk

NO one wants to wash a lettuce. Preparing a clean and healthy salad takes a bit of effort, which is reflected in the high cost of a handful of salad in a food takeaway shop.Junk food is also fast food. So as an experiment, even a loss leader, couldn’t we have a good portion of lettuce, tomato, cucumber, celery, even a few nuts, fruit etc.with, perhaps, a small amount of inexpensive dressing sold at, say, 50p, to grab and eat on the go? I’d munch away happily and be grateful for the chance. Could chip shops and McDonald’s and the like be induced to offer a ‘bag ’o’ salad’, or that natural fast food, curly kale, along with the usual fried protein and carbohydrate? People eat whatever is cheap and easily available.There is a lot more that could be done to help people to eat healthily.

H. Murray, Middleton

Why competition works better

JOHN Holden seems to view de-regulation of buses as a disaster on the basis that the system isn’t perfect (Postbag, August 27). Of course, it will never be perfect, but it is a massive improvement on the previous bureaucratic system.The biggest problem with publicly-owned bus operations was that they never had the incentive to compete with the car the way private operators now do. For years passengers were left to drift away to the car, with buses operated as a second-class system for those with no other option.If the bus system then had been open and competitive, operators would have made more effort to hold on to their passengers, which could have resulted in us having fewer cars on the road today.The two complaints most often made about the bus system in Manchester, are that little used routes sometimes disappear and that there are too many on Wilmslow Road.The implication is we should applaud the idea of an empty bus in the middle of nowhere on the off-chance that someone might use it, but when a route has enough passengers to sustain a frequent and competitive service, it is frowned on.

Paul Lockett, Sale