Volunteer libraries

I wouldn’t, knowing what I know and having seen what I’ve seen with volunteer libraries in the UK, volunteer to keep a ‘library’ open. Asking library users to pay taxes, volunteer and crowdfund to keep services open, equates to double and triple taxation. It is wrong on so many levels.

It is a shame that our current council has councillors proud to be ‘running’ libraries solely with volunteers so they are able to claim all libraries have been kept open. Is this naive, totally clueless or what?

We need a better vision for Sheffield’s libraries before it is too late.

John Clarke

Gang show in Sheffield

On Friday night, my husband and I attended the 20th Sheffield scout group gang show and what a great night it was.

Everyone, from theBeavers to the Explorer Scouts and leaders, and the families involved, had obviously worked very hard, and invested a lot of time to produce such a professional show and are to be congratulated.

The lighting, pyrotechnics, music and costumes were excellent. It was a pleasure to see so many children having fun and performing so confidently.

Looking forward to the next one in four years.

Mary Buteux

Buxton

Graffiti or piece of art?

I read an article in the Sheffield star recently about graffiti in Sheffield.

This is something that I don’t condone at all. However while walking our dog today I came across this piece in the woods near Rother Valley. Graffiti? Debatable, piece of art that needs to be appreciated. Definitely.

This has been done in a hard-to-reach area in woods on an old disused railway bridge out of the sight and reach of the majority of people and yet someone has created this fantastic piece of art.

I wonder what the people of Sheffield would say to this? Destructive ugly graffiti or a piece of art that the perpetrator deserves recognition for? I know what I think and if I’d been given the ability to create something like this I’d have been blessed.

I’ve no idea how long it’s been there or who did it but every time I walk my dog past it I wish I did.

Kevin Timmins

by email

Views on Brexit

A brief reply to Neville Martin, S9. Brief, because obviously you are, and I use the word again, “entrenched”, in your views on Brexit. I am not, as you put it, oblivious to anything regarding this fiasco.

I hope that the people around you remember your wishes when the “proverbial” hits the fan, as it most surely will, and living standards, rights, security all start to disappear. At my age I myself may not be affected for too long, but the young whose futures you will be denying definitely will.

B Heaton

DN5

Let him get on with job

Why does the dean of Christ Church Oxford, The Very Reverend Professor Martyn Percy think he can speak for the Christian people of Sheffield?

Why also does he think he can dictate who should and shouldn’t hold the office of Bishop of Sheffield?

I am a woman and I believe that a priest who acts in the “persona” of Christ should be a male. I also believe Bishops should be male.

As PCC Secretary to a thriving church in Sheffield, whose congregation hold the same beliefs as Bishop North, I have attended meetings where we have discussed working in harmony with female clergy and there are statutes in place that make sure that this will happen.

Bishop North has already pledged to work to “actively promote “ female leadership, following a meeting with them. Who does this Percy think he is, to accuse Bishop North of not being fit to hold the post of Bishop of Sheffield? What difference will it make to him anyway in his ivory tower in Oxford?

There are a great many lay women in the Diocese of Sheffield who have welcomed this appointment. The women priests who already have posts in Sheffield will be looked after by the Suffragen Bishop of Doncaster, so no problem there.

If we Christians cannot uphold democracy, then who can? Stop bickering, let him get on with his job and don’t let the south dictate what should and shouldn’t happen in our “go-ahead, vibrant, progressive city”.

Anne Palmer

Richmond Road, Sheffield, S13

He may have a point

Paul Kenny makes a point, (readers’ letters, February 27), about Iain Duncan Smith being “wheeled out” by the BBC to defend the vote for Brexit, “emboldened,” as Mr Kenny puts it, “to rubbish anyone who challenges the result of the vote.”

He may have a point.

Equally, Mr Kenny might be persuaded to make the same observation about that other malign quartet of yesterday’s men– Tony Blair, Nick Clegg, Peter Mandelson and Alastair Campbell.

Their silvery slime-trail betrays their irresistible impulse to stick their unwelcome proboscises conspiratorially into every orifice of the Brexit strategy, in the hope of sniffing out a further unctuous impediment to its implementation.

Why can’t they content themselves with counting their riches?

Neville Martin

Castledine Gardens, Sheffield, S9

Miscounting of beans

If a world-class firm of beancounters can’t get it right for an awards show, should they be trusted to provide audit and business consultancy to governments and companies?

John Eoin Douglas

by email

Bercow should go

Even though Mr Bercow has apologised about his behaviour towards Mr Trump, I still think he should resign.

Mr Trump is only doing what Enoch Powell and his followers wanted to do.

John Bull

Clear them from Lords

The National Health Service needs a lot more money to do its job.

The House of Lords has 805 members plus 34 peers who are absent.

A lot of them are signing on for five minutes and claiming £300 a day plus expenses.

Clear them all out with their Mickey Mouse titles.

Ralph Johnson