Letters - January 29, 2018

Every day we are forming opinions and attitudes built on what we see around us.

The biggest influence and input that we are exposed to is television - the “stranger” in everyone’s lounge and, to a large extent, bedroom. What we see and hear from it influences our behaviour, attitudes to others, and our spirituality.

Over the years we have seen boundaries of decency and behaviour pushed further and further back, resulting in acceptance of issues that would have been strongly objected to by the mass of society 30, 40 and 50 years ago. Television, and its off-spring of modern technology - the computer, mobile phones etc - has succeeded in not only dumbing-down society, which has been influenced by its bad language and violence, but also been responsible for the breakdown of communication (especially with families whose TV is literally never switched off).

It is the insidious perpetrator responsible for a crumbling, spiritually starved society, doing a brilliant job of destroying our greatest asset - our minds. It has desensitized us to the point of total annihilation of our finer feelings. Love, compassion, humility, kindness, sympathy, generosity and reaching out to overs has been wiped out by TV’s daily diet of self indulgence, violence, cruelty and sexual images, and society will continue to spiral downwards until this huge matter is seriously tackled, and we return once more to the line of moderation in all that we view on TV.

It has caused a national tsunami of mental illness, but we haven’t the professionals to deal with it.

Wake up, folks! Mary Whitehouse (pictured) was right - feed violence to society, and you get a violent society!

Mrs J Geddes

Whitemoss Avenue
Normoss

RADIO 2

What do we pay our licence fee for?

I couldn’t agree more with David Haley’s letter ‘Why replace Nigel with yet more pop?’ (Your Say, January 25) over the axing of Nigel Ogden’s weekly broadcast of ‘The Organist Entertains.’

As a lover of theatre and grand organs, Nigel has introduced listeners to organists from around the world, we would never have otherwise known about but for his research. Add to that interviews and valuable information of concerts around the country, refurbished organs, ones rehomed in other venues, and CDs available. I have been an avid fan since 1980.

The new head of Radio 2 wants to attract a younger audience but surely this is what Radio 1 is for.

We pay our licence fee like everyone else so we should be able to listen to the music we have continued to enjoy, no matter how long the duration happens to be.

I don’t believe there are so few of us organ fans to axe the programme and Radio 2 has had its fare share of pop music over the years, giving very little light music on a weekly basis compared to what it used to be like.

Regardless of Blackpool boasting three working theatre organs, most popular being the Tower Ballroom, whose organist, Phil Kelsall, would not have received the recognition he fully deserves had it not been for Nigel Ogden’s show, promoting celebration concerts - and this apart from Nigel’s own local concerts.

My CD collection would definitely be miniscule had it not been for The Organist Entertains.

Clifford Chambers

Blackpool

TRANSPORT

30 years wait a waste of time

Thirty years to upgrade public transport systems in the north is a waste of time and money, when people will not be abandoning their automobiles.

In the next 10 years, everyone will have bought or leased a self-driven electric vehicle. Ten minutes before you leave for your journey, it will emerge from the garage and park at the front door.

On cold mornings the heater will engage, so no need for macs or brollies.

Making yourself comfortable, you can open your laptop to start work on the journey.

The children can catch up on homework, printing their work sheet before reaching the school gates.

Arriving at work, you will not need money for parking. When you’ve alighted from vehicle, it will return to your garage until required to return for you.

These vehicles will be strong and robust to withstand minor scrapes and prangs, and carry passengers that probably weigh around 30 stones.

Alex Gillies

Address supplied

ENVIRONMENT

Common sense not plastic

Common sense demands manufacturers should be prohibited by law not to use plastic in any form of packaging, with retailers being fined if they accept goods wrapped in plastic – end of problem!

It has all been getting out of hand – how long before individual apples being wrapped in plastic?

Dave Haskell

via email