Letters - Wednesday, September 8, 2021

This time last year various Liberals and assorted left wing politicians were mocking Donald Trump and praying for Biden to win.

One local politician even appeared wearing a T-shirt promoting the Biden/Harris team.

There’s a saying – “Be careful what you wish for...”

Whatever Trump’s faults, the President who has replaced him is proving to be infinitely worse.

A lame duck President would be bad enough but Biden has made the world, and particularly our democracies, far more dangerous.

What must be even more galling for ‘Trump haters’ is that Biden is actually treating Europeans and NATO with far more contempt than Trump ever did.

It’s worth noting that, as recently as April, less than a third of troops in Afghanistan were American but Biden has totally ignored the contribution from 50 or so other countries.

Neil Cartwright

via email

FUEL

There’s nothing new about E10 petrol

What is all this nonsense about E10 being a new fuel?

Well, maybe the lead has been taken out of it, but this mixing of ‘normal’ petrol (95 Octane or E5) with ethanol has been around for well over 90 years (first produced in 1928). Sold by Cleveland, it was called ‘Discol’ (an abbreviation of Distilled alcohol) and had about 10 per cent ethanol in it. Old A6 road users passing the Cleveland Station between Walton-le-Dale and Bamber Bridge, next to the Duddle Lane junction, will remember and indeed may well have filled up with it.

Lead was added some years later as an anti-knocking ingredient. Without this, engines tended to literally make a knocking sound, decreasing the engine’s efficiency and making for an uncomfortable ride.

One thing I would advise motorists not to do is add a certain, ahem, skin moisturiser. It may well have an E letter in front of it, but it is certainly not to be used for making car engines run smoother! Leave Red-ex to do that (cue people scrambling on various search engines (!) of their choice to find out what this is). Please do NOT put this in your computers. It will NOT speed up, say, your broadband speed!

Maybe this would be a good time to knock all those people who seem to have their lives governed by social media and not those in the real world, thus contrasting those who did not know of the change with those who did and had done their research into whether their vehicle is suitable to run on the ‘new’ fuel.

I would have thought that social media would have been all over this rather than ephemeral things, such as who is hooking up with whom on Love island, wherever that is! Darned if I can find that on any map or atlas!

NS via email

FOOD

Grow your own vegetables

Due to problems in the supply chains affecting the movement of food from the field to our tables, along with everything else that needs transporting, experts are stating things are going to get worse before the run-up to Christmas. So why not grow a few vegetables – such as potatoes from tubers grown in large pots or in black bin liners, using compost from grow bags. Or buy large bags of multi-purpose compost. Make sure that there are sufficient drainage holes to prevent surplus water building up and the new potatoes rotting. Carrots can be sown in containers in time for the Christmas table, producing young sweet baby carrots.

Grow lettuce, radish and spring onions for a salad on Boxing Day, using meat leftovers.

Potatoes and next season vegetable seeds are now available in garden centres and do-it-yourself stores. So give it a try and you will enjoy the results on Christmas Day!

Dave Ellis via email

CRIME

Disbelief over child killer’s jail release

It beggars belief that the Parole Board has seen fit to release a man (Colin Pitchfork) who was found guilty of the rape and murder of two young girls.

I can only conclude that this matter should trigger a review of the ‘Crime and Punishment Laws’, with particular reference to corporal and capital punishment.

The families of the victims deserve much better from our justice system.

Mike Davison

via email

Thanks for reading. If you value what we do and are able to support us, a digital subscription is just £1 for your first month. Try us today by clicking here