Letters - May 22, 2018

Re. the recent article in the Gazette ‘Anger over Government’s radical plans to speed up fracking’.

Rose Dickinson, campaigner at Friends of the Earth and the spokesperson for Frack Free Lancashire, both need to consider the current UK situation regarding energy supply and energy security.

I think that well-regulated fracking should be allowed to be developed to prove whether it can be done safely, or not.

The UK needs to develop an independent source of natural gas for the following reasons:

n North Sea gas supplies are diminishing, we need future energy security. The fact is eight out of 10 homes in the UK are heated by gas. Gas also supplies 24 per cent of our electricity and is used as the standby to generate electricity when the wind fails to blow. Gas is also used in many industrial processes.

n We will need gas for many years to come. It will take many decades and major investment to convert from a gas economy to an all-electric one.

n The negative effect on our balance of payments and the UK economy of importing energy. Without an indigenous supply of gas, we will have to import both gas and electricity from Europe, which is dependant on Russia for a significant supply of gas and which can be restricted in cold conditions or for political reasons.

We should also be aware that all of our coal-fired power stations are scheduled for closure and that several of our ageing nuclear power stations will also have to close in the next few years.

Intermittent wind and solar will never meet the total UK demand.

I ask people to back Britain and to give fracking for natural gas a chance to be developed for our benefit.

Vincent Booth

Address supplied

GRAMMAR

I can’t think of nothing worse...

There is a real bugbear that I have and that is the use of the double negative which seems prevalent among those from Essex and indeed the eastern parts of London in general.

As a result of listening to programmes from these areas, real or imaginary, (I am sure I don’t have to, er, spell them out!) by using the double negative, it seems to give authenticity to the use of this grammatical error. It should not, but it is cringeworthy.

However, just like in maths, the use of the double negative turns it into a positive, which is probably not the intention of those who use it, but is nevertheless utterly wrong and yet again demonstrates a degree of illiteracy.

I can think of no finer example of its misuse than in a court of law where the defendant, when asked if he/she committed the crime, replies, “It wasn’t me what didn’t do it, m’lud!”

Thus found guilty by the defendant’s own words and sentenced in one fell swoop of illiteracy, because this actually meant that the defendant WAS the one what done it. Oh dear, I’m at it now! “What”? Hey ho! One grammar lesson at a time.

For the record, it should be “who did it”.

I am not asking people to talk posh, but is it really unreasonable to ask people to speak and write in a way which cannot be misinterpreted?

There again, there are areas of England where most of the rest of us would be scratching our heads as to what we have just heard and even more just what was meant by what had been said.

I leave the readers to ponder as to which areas I am referring.

Sorry, Welsh and other Celtic languages defeat me!

Neil Swindlehurst

Address supplied

EUROVISION

Another cause 
to whine about

The PC brigade have found another cause to whine on about now.

The winner of the Eurovision Song Contest (pictured) wore a kimono and had waving cats on stage.

I didn’t see the show but saw her pictures on the web.

Is it really so offensive to dress in one of these garments?

She says she wore it because she simply liked it.

I once went to a fancy dress party as a member of Abba (the brown haired lady). I found the whole thing a big laugh. Was I offending Abba fans all over the world dressing up like that? Or people from Sweden?

There’s some horrible things happening in the world.

Look at Israel or Syria, let’s worry about that

first.

Jayne Grayson

via email

POLITICS

Austerity just 
isn’t working

Tax receipts are at an all-time high. Government borrowing is at an 11-year low. Yet this Government persists with austerity Britain.

Graham Nelson

Via email