Vegan Christmas pledge will help protect rainforest

For once we will not have a manager spending Vincent Tan’s money like a drunken sailor

Dai Woosnam

I’VE always been able to take or leave meat, but recently I discovered much of the chicken produced in this country is fed on soy grown in the Amazon, so I’ve decided to cut it out of my diet and reduce the amount of red meat I eat too.

We’ve all seen the shocking images in the news of the Amazon burning down. Despite this, the media hasn’t paid the issue much attention recently.

The Amazon is being burned or otherwise destroyed to grow soy, which goes into animal feed, and this is not only destroying wildlife and human habitat but also releasing carbon into the atmosphere, thus speeding up climate change.

Protecting these forests is vital, but large fast-food brands and food producers are the biggest culprits as they procure huge amounts of meat and soy from Brazil. They need to take steps to make their fast food more sustainable and they have the buying power to do this.

In the meantime, we can all make a difference by trying to cut down a little on our meat consumption generally because a lot of the meat we eat in the UK has been reared on soy grown in Brazil.

I’ve made a vegan Christmas pledge this year, to protect the Amazon, tackle climate change and live more sustainably. And possibly save some money in the process.

Clare James

Penylan, Cardiff

Deaf disadvantaged by lack of subtitles

IT was a good Wales v Hungary football match on Tuesday night. It was highly enjoyable for the viewers on S4C.

However, if this match was broadcast on BBC or ITV the commentary on the match would have been subtitled for the benefit of deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers. But this is Wales, and S4C routinely discriminates against deaf viewers by not providing subtitles.

I made a complaint to S4C about the lack of subtitles, in either English or Welsh, for the commentary on the match. S4C came back with the routine excuse that this was “due to the English language rights being held by another broadcaster”. S4C has consistently raised “copyright” reasons over the years for not subtitling some items, including songs from Welsh to English. That the “copyright” issue applies to football commentaries beggars belief. This was an important football match for Wales. The refusal to provide subtitles on copyright grounds is absolute nonsense from a deaf viewer’s point of view. The issue of copyright has been unresolved for decades and S4C has done nothing to resolve it. Deaf viewers in Wales face greater discrimination than those of the UK home countries. It is time S4C was investigated by the equal rights authorities.

Cedric Moon, Ex-Wales Deaf Broadcasting Council Secretary

Vincent deserves freedom of the city

WHEN Neil Harris bought Tom Bradshaw for £1.25m in January of this year, it was amazingly Millwall’s first ever million-pound footballer, breaking their record of £800,000 paid for Paul Goddard in 1989, a record that had stood for an incredible 30 years.

In the same period Cardiff had made over 30 such monster “million plus” purchases... and by the time of Mr Warnock’s departure, it totalled 33, and he alone had made 10 of those purchases of “million plus” players.

The great thing about hiring the admittedly underwhelming Mr Harris is the fact that for once we will not have a manager spending Vincent Tan’s money like a drunken sailor.

Vincent deserves so much better. It is appalling that this saviour of the club has not been offered the Freedom of Cardiff by the council, and an honorary doctorate by the university.

Dai Woosnam

Grimsby

So, what form of Brexit do you want?

PLEASE can a person who voted leave tell me what form of Brexit did you envisage.

Did you vote for a no deal Brexit, which is what the Brexit Party wants. Did you vote for a Theresa May deal, which Nigel Farage so disliked he said he would rather remain than back it? Members of her own party voted it down with the DUP.

Finally is it Boris Johnson’s new deal that takes your fancy? His is a re-hash of the Theresa deal with a change to Northern Ireland, a deal Mr Farage and the DUP both don’t think is Brexit.

Leaving takes many faces and not one side can agree; leavers are the most divided side.

Andrew Nutt

Bargoed

Santa writes to blind children too

SENDING off a Christmas list and receiving a letter from Santa Claus in return is one of the highlights of the year for many children in the run-up to the festive period. Every child should have the chance to experience the happiness of hearing from the man in red himself.

Many fantastic charities offer letters to Santa schemes for families across Wales. However, blind and partially sighted children are often unable to read these letters themselves because they are not available in accessible formats.

That’s why RNIB Cymru offers a specialised service that sends blind and partially sighted children festive letters from St Nick in their preferred reading format. Letters can be sent in uncontracted or contracted Braille, large print, audio CD or audio file. What’s more, Santa and his elves are bilingual, so children can receive their letters in Welsh too.

To receive a tailored letter or email from Santa for your child, simply send your letter to Santa Claus, RNIB, Midgate House, Midgate, Peterborough PE1 1TN. Make sure to include the child’s name and delivery address, a contact number, whether the child would like to hear from Santa in Welsh or English and what format is required. The deadline is December 2 for letters and December 20 for emails.

Alison Thomas, RNIB Cymru Lead Transcription Executive

The small print: Letters will not be included unless you include your name, full postal address and daytime telephone number (we prefer to use names of letter writers but you can ask for your name not to be published if you have a good reason). The Editor reserves the right to edit all letters.