Memories brought back

We first came across Peter when the late great club secretary Ralph Rowbotham put on a grass track meeting at the Miners Welfare ground in Swallownest and this tousled haired youngster with spectacles on and wearing spikes far too big won a boys race by half a lap and everyone was asking who is this kid from Rawmarsh called Elliott?

That incredible 800 time 1min 42.97secs was achieved in early season in Spain and when he got back, everyone was saying wait until he starts his speed work!

I had reason to be sitting with his mum and dad on Wheatcroft road Rawmarsh in the early hours, when he won his Commonwealth gold medal and can you imagine the emotion in the room when some 90 minutes later they were to see their son collect his medal from the Duke of Edinburgh.

l would remind your readers he was the only athlete to attempt the 800/1500 metres double at the Seoul 1988 Olympics and I wonder if such was the reason for the silver medal rather than the gold as he just could not get to the eventual winner of the 1500 Peter Rono.

Once again a great piece which brought some memories back.

David Haywood

Rotherham Harriers

Get rid of fakes

Love him or loathe him Jeremy Corbyn is quite rightly appalled by the concept of ‘street sleepers’, as should every right-minded man woman and child in this day and age – there is no reason that anyone should sleep rough in a so-called civilised society.

Last winter or the winter before Sheffield City Council’s UKIP Councillors put forward a motion to open up a council-owned property to be used as a winter shelter for Sheffield’s homeless, they were entirely and unanimously voted down by the other councillors, the vast majority of whom are supposed Labour councillors.

Sheffield has far too many Labour councillors who are about as far from socialists as it is possible to get.

They do not reflect the people of Sheffield, they do not respect the history of Sheffield but more importantly they do not represent the views of their national leader Jeremy Corbyn.

Jeremy Corbyn, I am sure, would not have doomed our street sleepers to a winter of sleeping rough if another option had been available just to score points against an opposing political party.

Jeremy Corbyn has on record voted 428 times against the whip of his own party when it did not match his own personal values.

I myself do not like the man at all but if I am going to live in a city run by Labour I expect my Labour councillors to be Labour and not #FakeLabour.

I suggest that come May, when we the people of Sheffield have chance to make a change , we take that chance with both hands and remove some of the deadwood from our council and replace #fakelabour with new politics.

It is not healthy for a council do be dominated in such a way for so long, power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely

LS

Sheffield.

Please explain

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.

What do we pay our council leaders for? We now have a private company being paid £231m.

To help save Sheffield possibly a paltry £6m.

Why do we have elections to vote for councillors to run our city for them to just send our money to a private company just because they are clueless to find ways of saving money?

Perhaps the great and wonderful councillor Peter Price could explain.

RG Aldam

by email

Change of mind?

Isn’t it a bit hypocritical of Dan Jarvis to seek nomination for Mayor of Sheffield City Region?

He has openly stated his opposition to the current model and is in favour of a Yorkshire-wide authority. Has he changed his mind, and decided to go with the agreement that Barnsley, Rotherham Doncaster and Sheffield signed before Barnsley and Doncaster changed their minds?

I wonder how he would reconcile being head of something he didn’t believe in.

Roger Bird

by email

Mayoral shortlist

The Sheffield branch of the Women’s Equality Party was very disappointed to hear that the nominations have now closed for Labour candidates for the South Yorkshire Metro Mayoral elections.

Yet again, we have all-male Labour short list: Dan Jarvis MP, former minister Richard Caborn and local councillor Ben Curran.

When we approached the Labour Party to ask that they consider gender balance in putting together their short list for this election, we were told that it was an “internal process” which would not be discussed with anybody outside the party. It seems that yet again the Labour Party’s internal processes have left them in a position which does not show them in the best light with regard to gender.

From the disgraced and invisible Jared O’Mara MP, to Sheffield City Council’s licensing committee passing a new sexual entertainment policy without discussing gender, Labour continually fail to step up to the mark on matters of gender equality.

All of the metro mayors elected to date have been men: this latest all male “choice” for Labour voters in South Yorkshire will continue this familiar trend.

It makes you wonder whether there are any women still in the Labour Party, and if so, why?

If Labour carries on like this, maybe there won’t be, as the continually ignored women look for a new political home.

Charlotte Mead

Sheffield Branch Leader, Women’s Equality Party