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readers letters

• Subservience still thrilling

  SOME Tory MPs and Cabinet Ministers are revolting, or so we are told by the news media. This is because they oppose the government’s proposal to change the composition of the House of Lords by making it a mainly elected body and at the same time reducing the number of MPs by 50. read more

• Nimbyism hits base plans

  MY LETTER of February 12 regarding the Fairford Air Base was initiated by the local concern for enterprises providing jobs. However, an investigation using superior resources has resulted in the conclusion that there is no particular requirement for the kind of jobs the Base could provide (there would be a lot). It was much preferred that the status quo of an attractive seasonal holiday location/retirement area was the ideal conclusion, with the level and type of work as presently engendered. This meets the policy of the MoD in that the base will function on three days a year for charitable purposes and two weeks of NATO exercises. read more

• Town needs better parking

  ON APRIL 1 every year I enjoy the articles in The Times on April Fool's Day, this year though Cotswold District Council beat them to the post with their press release dated 13 October 2011 stating that all pay and display machines would from April Fool's Day be solar powered, pay by phone, take debit and credit cards and cash - so where are they? What have the officers been doing? As a retired parking consultant I know it does not take six months to change machines. read more

• Help me find relatives

  MY NAME is Donna Taylor and I live in New Zealand. I am a descendant of the Neems and Witchell families who farmed at Wick Farm in Sherston. I am coming over to the UK in July of this year and would like to make contact with any family still in the area. read more

• Sources show true facts

  ALL scientific study requires data sources be revealed, see the bibliography at the end of any scientific paper. Journalists have sources that are not revealed but whose knowledge of the subject is accepted. Using institutions or names, is not ‘cherry picking’ but verifying the source. The University of East Anglia, in ‘Climategate’ required a ‘Freedom of Information’ request to reveal data sources for peer group analysis of massaged climate data. This from a publicly funded body! Einstein’s theory of relativity uses the speed of light as a constant, never to be broken. 99.99 per cent of all scientists agree but it does not stop them challenging it. No conspiracy theory. In Al Gore’s (there I go, cherry picking) film ‘An Inconvenient Truth’, the High Court ruled that the film contained nine errors so serious that the schools must be issued with corrections. The disappearance of Himalayan glaciers, in 30 years, used by the IPCC without verification, was totally flawed and also forgot that in the Karakoram region, the glaciers are increasing in length. The Indian professor who wrote it had received a government grant of £137,000. Three final points. Firstly, what is the main greenhouse gas? Water Vapour NOT CO2. Secondly, The Times Atlas, once an accurate data source stated that 15 per cent of the Greenland Ice Cap had disappeared. In fact it is 0.1 per cent. (The Atlas has still been released). Thirdly, according to the Department of Energy and Climate Change, DECC, a megawatt hour of electricity produced from conventional sources of gas costs £55, from an offshore wind farm £150. I am still willing to openly debate all my sources of data. read more

• Stop growing calls menace

  CAN nothing be done about the proliferation of unwanted telephone calls which occur mostly during the lunchtime period or in the early evening. These would appear to be directed at the elderly, the number presumably being obtained via the local telephone directory. read more

On this day: North Wilts news | Cotswolds news | readers letters | Lesley Brain