Letters - July 18, 2018

Well, it’s that time of year again when school proms abound.

Just what are they all about?

In my day (here I go again) you just left school and that was it. End of.

There may have been a school leavers’ disco and uniforms being ceremoniously ripped up outside the school gates, but there were certainly no ball gowns, dapper suits or limousines in the equation.

I heard about one girl’s parents shelling out a small fortune on their daughter’s prom night, then the girl got so smashed that she couldn’t even remember what had happened during her once-in-a-lifetime experience. What a waste.

However, casting my mind back 40 years ago when I was of that age, would I have wanted to celebrate the end of my school days?

You bet.

Maybe not in that manner though and I still don’t see how such over-the-top expense can be justified.

The competitive element is bad news too.

Poorer kids must feel inferior when their parents are unable to afford such extravagances.

Still, I’m not going to judge the kids or parents, if it’s all within reason.

It is a rite of passage after all and if they want to celebrate it then so be it, I suppose.

Horses for courses, so they say.

CM Langan

Via email

SHOW

Spectacular ice show on doorstep

It was good to see the Gazette’s review of ‘Memerise’ Hot Ice at the Pleasure Beach Arena and more so to see a brilliant review in the Sunday Express (July 15) by Jeffrey Taylor, which praised choreographers, and former skating stars Oula Jääskeläinen and Lynsey Brown for their ability to instil a quality to the show that wouldn’t be out of place in London’s West End.

He details the skaters’ capabilities as second to none but also points out that the show’s first night was not sold out, yet the fierce lighting helped disguise whatever gaps there were scattered around the auditorium, going on to comment that the girls and their feathers also masked the spaces.

In previous years, I have always been puzzled as to why Hot Ice doesn’t have almost, if not full, houses that all their shows deserve. Yet, stick a few cameras in for a TV production and the Arena would be packed out!

Millions of viewers are tuned into Dancing on Ice, proving that the majority of folk can’t be bothered to make the journey to enjoy spectacular live performances right on our doorstep.

We should be proud to experience this unique annual spectacle which, as Jeffrey Taylor wrote, is “in a class of its own”.

Clifford Chambers

Blackpool

HALAL

Surgery with 
no anaesthetic

I read with interest that recently a vote took place in connection with the supply of halal meat to Lancashire schools and am disappointed to not have had the opportunity to express an opinion – perhaps this vote was only open to certain areas or parents of schoolchildren.

WhileI have not (thankfully) been present when this process takes place, a colleague who has worked in the meat industry and travelled widely described the process as akin to medical surgery without anaesthetic!

Surely our supposedly humane society should not allow the suffering associated with the practice.

John wood

via email

HALAL

Stun before 
animal slaughter

I am so happy Lancashire County Council has voted against offering unstunned halal meat in our schools.

I cannot understand the objections made by Lancashire Council of Mosques (LCM) as, firstly, the animal is still alive after stunning (only stunned) and secondly the Quran does not forbid stunning first, so what is the problem?

Thank you councillors for doing the right thing and standing up for animal welfare.

No animal should be slaughtered without first being stunned.

Alison Gabbott

via email