LETTERS
Own goal
THE extortionate transfer fees and wages for football players need to be reined in. After all, you know who is paying: whether it be on season tickets at the turnstile or on TV subscriptions, it’s the fans who are footing the bill.
For a family of four to go to an away game in a lower division costs at least £120 after paying for coach travel, food and match tickets. It’s at least double that to watch a Premier League game.
I believe this is the key to why England are struggling on the world stage — not enough homegrown players are being given the chance to blossom at the top level. Managers only seem interested in buying stars from abroad at extortionate prices.
JOHN WILMOTT, Hucknall, Notts. I AM astonished at the high wages paid to today’s football players.
My late husband Jimmy Payne played for Liverpool, and I still have the one-page contract offering him £12 a week during the 1949-50 season and £10 a week during the summer.
He was highly thought of as a gentlemen on and off the field, and I was proud to be his wife. DOROTHY PAYNE,
Penrith, Cumbria.
Unequal treatment
A MODEL tries to steal £1,000 of goods in Harrods and the magistrate lets her off because she is ‘talented’.
In contrast, when my two young granddaughters started at a new school, they were told that to be accepted by their new friends, they would have to shoplift a bottle of soft drink from a local supermarket.
They knew it was wrong, but felt pressured to do it. They were caught and the police were called.
Despite being children and it being a relatively minor misdemeanour, they were taken to a police station, fingerprinted, interviewed separately and put in separate cells to await their parents.
Name and address supplied.
Fit for heroes?
THE Commonwealth War Graves Commission must be congratulated for all it does for the fallen of both wars. However, I agree that not enough was done for those who came home (Letters).
In 1918, returning men came home to a ‘land fit for heroes’ and sold matches on the street.
In 1945, we came home to a country in depression. I was told by a senior officer to go home, find a nice girl, get married and get on with the rest of my life. I survived 36 sorties with Bomber Command and for that I say to politicians: ‘Thanks for nothing.’ To everyone else: ‘You’re welcome.’ MICHAEL J. CARROLL,
Bushey, Herts.
Age before beauty
RICHARD LITTLEJOHN says you know you are getting old when the cast of TV’s The Bill look younger than you do (Mail).
For me, it’s when the barber asks if you want the hair in your ears trimmed instead of ‘something for the weekend, sir?’; when someone gets up and offers you their seat; and when you look at a young lady and wonder why. RONALD BALL, Farnborough, Hants.
Pothole disgrace
A CYCLING pensioner has been killed by a pothole that Bury council allegedly refused to fill in (Mail).
I drive past a pothole at the side of the A17 that started as a small dip, but is now 10ft long and 2ft deep. Nothing has been done to repair it, except that, some months ago, a few cones were put in the hole.
When it fills with water after a rainstorm, a cyclist or driver would have no idea of how deep it is and would be in for a nasty surprise. STEVE GOODBAN, Chesterfield, Derbys.
Parents’ agony
I KNOW just how Olivia Fane feels as the last of her five sons leaves home (Mail).
I was hanging out the washing on the line when it suddenly dawned on me that there were two fewer to wash for. I just stood there, crying my eyes out and wondering for how long I had the youngest two.
But it was just the shock I needed to make me treasure those last few years and enjoy every moment.
Now, the two youngest are getting ready to spread their wings. It’s heartbreaking that they no longer need me as they once did, unless it’s a crisis.
It’s a rollercoaster of being proud that you have helped make them independent with the realisation that they are starting a new life without you. MAURA ROBINSON-DAUGIRDA,
address supplied.
Make it classy
THERE is to be yet another TV version of Pride And Prejudice, but