Be proud and celebrate our bright and beautiful land
HOW I agree with Dominic Sandbrooks’s essay about England at its best (Mail). I read it sitting in my garden when the sun was shining. It was a beautiful day with the bees buzzing around the lavender. All was well with the world. On Sunday, the church bells will be ringing — such a glorious sound — and we shall be singing All Things Bright And Beautiful. I know this as I shall be playing the piano, and the church will be bustling with young and old. We shall come out and the village green will be looking its best. I shall get the lunch ready — roast lamb and homegrown carrots — then off to the pub for can be done to prosecute them? I drive a lot of miles each week and police are as scarce as hen’s teeth.
The Government brings in higher penalties, but then announces more cuts to police budgets. Without more traffic patrols, there is no chance of stopping these dangerous practices. MAUREEN WEST,
Barnet, Herts.
Worth every penny
THOSE who complain about overpaid football players (Letters) should reflect that a club’s essential asset is its playing squad.
Without players there would be no lucrative TV deals, no replica kit sales, no ticket sales and no business, so they are worth every penny they get. Nor do they just turn up a quick drink while it cooks. After lunch, a read of the newspaper and then a potter in the garden. Is there anything more English than that? Absolutely nothing to beat it.
Mrs VAL SCARFF, Adderbury, Oxon. I ENJOYED Dominic Sandbrook’s article about England. But I must point out that the steam engine was invented by James Watt and the life-saver penicillin was given to us by Alexander Fleming, both brilliant Scots. In fact, everything Dominic refers to about Englishness can also be said about Scottishness, at the heart of which is a landscape of rain, wind and every week for a 90-minute kickaround; they train daily and every aspect of their short working lives as players must take a backseat to their job.
PATRICK POWELL, St Breward, Cornwall.
Ticket to ride
IS IT any wonder that rail fares are set to increase in line with inflation next year (Mail)? Britain is the only country in Europe where transport is expected to be run as a profit- making industry. Everywhere else, it’s regarded as a service and the costs are subsidised. PETE WILLIAMS, Hayes, Middlesex. THE hike in annual season tickets is being used to suggest rail fares are excessive. snow, oak and mountain ash, wheat and berries, coal and iron, coast and rivers. Famous across the world are Shetland wool, whisky, our authors and poets. A small country that punches well above its weight. A warrior nation that sent more men and women, per head of population, to serve in both world wars than any of the other home nations. I am sure Dominic would enjoy Arthur Herman’s book How The Scots Invented The Modern World, the story of how Western Europe’s poorest nation created everything! GEORGE H. J. FREDERICK,
Mexborough, S. Yorks. The Brighton to London annual ticket is £4,184, which works out at £18.60 return a day. How cheap do commuters expect their fares to be?
Bought daily, a peak return ticket costs £57.20 and even off-peak, it’s £33.20. In fact, it could be argued that off-peak passengers are subsidising the peak-hour commuters’ fares.
A. SMITH, Canterbury, Kent.