Sunday, 20 January 2008

Jan 20 2008 Wales on Sunday

WHILE I agree with Angharad Mair (Playing Chicken, WoS, Jan 13) that Gary Lineker shouldn’t be advertising crisps, I don’t share her criticism of Jamie Oliver for taking a fat fee from Sainsbury’s.

At least he had the courage to criticise his employers for one aspect of their trading, and in doing so risked being sacked and losing all that dosh.

I’m not a fan of Jamie Oliver, who cut the throat of a sheep on television. And I don’t like all the meat dishes that he cooks on TV – but then I’ve been a vegetarian for 58 years and a vegan for 46.

So while Jamie is no hero in my eyes, I applaud his efforts to make people aware of the obscene cruelty in the chicken and meat industry.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I assume Angharad is not in the least bothered about it – or perhaps animal welfare issues generally.

How does she feel about the practice of stuffing five or six hens in a small cage for virtually their entire lives? The battery system for producing eggs is an obscenely cruel practice and should not be allowed in a truly civilised country.

GEORGE BARWICK
Killay Swansea

* WITH regard to Angharad Mair’s article concerning celebrities in TV ads, I have always bought and will always buy what I want to, not what some overpaid celebrity recommends I buy.

I must say that I have used Sainsbury’s for our main shopping for many years, long before Jamie Oliver ever came on the scene.

Incidentally, why doesn’t Angharad write something more sensible in her articles?

CLIFF JONES
Bristol

* I FEEL I must write regarding the article on the Ghanaian lady sent back to her own country (‘Where’s The Compassion, Mr Brown?’, WoS, Jan 13).

This is very sad. However, let’s not forget we have a National Health Service not an International Health Service.

Why are we portrayed as callous when her own country refuses her treatment?

We cannot fund everyone’s healthcare. When we go abroad we have to have medical insurance, so why is this not enforced on those people who visit here?

The National Health Service is not indefinitely funded and I’m sure if people, who needed treatment and had lived and worked here, were put back to service, public opinion would soon change.

Christian values only seem to apply when other countries refuse. We have no reason to reproach our system. It simply cannot cope with a constant foreign onslaught from those seeking treatment because they cannot afford it in their own country.

NAME AND ADDRESS PROVIDED

* THERE is only one kit sponsor the WRU should be interested in (‘WRU Shirt Deal Fury’, WoS, Jan 13) getting on their shirts and that is Adidas.

So, at the next press conference you have with that organisation ask them why they are not getting Adidas on board.

They supplied the thing in the 1970s, so why not now? They do NZ and even the Lions, so why not us?

Oh yes, I know – Adidas are the best sports company in the world, period, and they would in no way want to be associated with a bunch of losers like us.

TONY JONES
Via e-mail

* WE are constantly being bombarded with claims that pubs and clubs sell their products too cheaply and irresponsibly.

In Welsh pubs and clubs a pint will cost between £2 and £3. They will close in their droves this year because people do not frequent them anymore, unless to eat.

Instead, they choose to stay at home where they can smoke their lungs away and drink themselves silly, unsupervised on supermarket ale, which local to me is £30 for 54 cans.

Pubs and clubs in the main have no wish to remain open 24 hours, nor do they have the resources to be able to. I wonder who was behind the drive for this?

Less pubs and clubs. Less socialising. More problems on our streets.

You cannot speak to a trouble-making youngster’s parent anymore because they don’t go out. You have to go on the internet to hold a conversation with your next-door neighbour.

Shut our pubs and clubs. We’ll rue the day.

DAVID EDWARDS
Blackwood, Caerphilly

* I WOULD like to reply to Dave Haskell’s comments in the readers’ letters section of Wales on Sunday last week.

I am pleased that Mr Haskell regards the new Climate Change Wales website as “fundamentally a good idea”.

My comments about Wales using three planets’ worth of the earth’s resources are based on the Welsh ecological footprint.

This shows us that if everyone on the earth used the same amount of resources to sustain their lifestyles as the average person in Wales, then we would need three planets.

The message I am trying to convey using this phrase is that we are not using the resources of our planet in a sustainable way. To avoid exhausting the earth’s resources, we all need to consider how we use them.

I don’t think addressing this issue is “loony” which is why as minister with responsibility for fighting climate change in Wales I am pleased to lend my support to individuals and communities who are helping to get this message across.

We only have one planet – and if we don’t start using “one planet’s” worth of resources we will not only run out of the source and means of production but will make worse the effects of climate change.

JANE DAVIDSON
Minister for Environment Sustainability and Housing