RE the Soapbox letter from Geoff Robb, “Put your money where your mouth is” (Letters, June 26).

Mr Robb really has got a bee in his bonnet concerning anything to do with socialism and the left.

It’s only a couple of weeks ago that he was castigating the BBC for being too left wing. The BBC left wing? Just what planet do you live on Mr Robb?

Judging by the way the BBC have acted before, during and after the recent General Election, it appears to me and to any objective observer, that they have in fact swung heavily to the right in regard to political bias when discussing the issues of the day.

On to Mr Robb’s other problem, socialist millionaires, and the audacity with which they dare to support good causes, including the recent anti-austerity march in London.

Now if (God forbid) we are going to have millionaires at all (and I’m personally against the excessive acquisition of wealth) better for them to have a social conscience, unlike many of those on the right.

You are damned if you do and damned if you don’t in the eyes of people like Mr Robb.

H O Griffiths, Littledale, Pickering

 

DON’T be a pew warmer or a crowd pleaser. In response to Peter Rickaby (Letters, June ), I see a totally different picture.

Jesus chose his disciples, engaged them in a life-transforming process and eventually released them to change the world. He does the same thing today.

Every place of worship has a different recipe about making disciples. We must not divert from the core calling that Jesus left this earth for his followers to turn ordinary disciples into fearless world-changers.

If we are just pew warmers and people pleasers nothing much happens, but if we live by faith then we will see signs, miracles and wonders today.

Yes, British social attitudes surveys have shown a decline of Christians from 66 per cent in 1983 to 43 per cent in 2009. The findings also reveal that Muslims have by far the strongest faith in Britain, with Christians from smaller evangelical churches the only group coming close to the same levels of certainty.

Church numbers are insignificant, but the power of prayer among a few can be transformational and revolutionary.

Julie Burton, Park Lane, Bishop Wilton, York

 

WHILE reading of the excellent project work by Bootham School’s head of history and pupils into the 1815 Battle of Waterloo (The Press, June 30), I was intrigued by the references to using a “real battle artefact”, whatever that may be.

As an artefact can be any man-made construct, Waterloo must have had thousands on the battlefield from soldiers’ belt buckles to the Iron Duke’s personal portable toilet via a vast amount of horse-related equipment and impedimenta.

But perhaps the artefact in question is the business end of a longarm complete with a wicked muzzle mounted bayonet, in short a gun, or in this case the 18th/19th century British Army Land Pattern Musket, better known as the flintlock ‘Brown Bess’.

Surely, history has not become so PC that we now discuss war as pointing artefacts at the enemy?

Thankfully, Tennyson wasn’t quite so heavily lumbered in his poem about a later war in the Crimea. The (censored version of) The Charge of the Light Brigade doesn’t scan quite so well as the original:

Artefacts to right of them, Artefacts to left of them, Artefacts in front of them Volley’d and thunder’d; Storm’d at with artefact-propelled sub-artefacts, Boldly they rode and well, Into the jaws of Death, Into the mouth of (censored) Rode the six hundred.

Laurie Holland, Keble Park Crescent, Bishopthorpe, York

 

MANY readers will have seen the good news that two new lifesaving meningitis vaccination programmes will begin this summer.

These measures will save lives straight away and for years to come and at Meningitis Now, the founder of the meningitis movement and the only charity dedicated to fighting meningitis in the UK,we’re delighted to see them being rolled out. Our Beat It Now! campaign over the last two years has been pushing for this.

However, this doesn’t mean meningitis is beaten. There are still strains for which there is no vaccine available, there will still be people who are not protected by these vaccine programmes, and there are still people struggling to rebuild their lives following their experience of meningitis.

At Meningitis Now we want to hear about these experiences. By taking part in our Meningitis And Me survey you will be making a really important contribution.

Please visit our website at www.meningitisnow.org

Sue Davie, Chief executive, Meningitis Now

 

I WAS alerted to the University of York roundabout in bloom by a friend’s post on the internet.

It’s on my to-do list and so it was lovely to see the photograph by Barbara Hudson (Letters, June 22) spurring me on.

Imagine my delight recently when sluggishly walking home along the river, after far too many shops and chores in town on Friday last, to come upon another glorious floral vista, this time in New Walk just by Blue Bridge. A feast of colour to revitalise the spirits. Many thanks to the Friends of New Walk. I have just read your website Guided Tour to New Walk as a bonus.

Dot Nicholson, Grange Garth, York