Motofest looks back at our rich history
I WAS appalled to read Jessica Reece-Khan’s letter in the Telegraph (Jun 11) alleging that Motofest was really all about “the rich and how they like to flaunt their wealth”.
I was an exhibitor at the Motofest for the whole weekend at the display of Standard cars outside the Flying Standard pub in Trinity Street. Our cars on display had not cost a fortune and were not owned by rich people flaunting their wealth. They were owned by ordinary, hard-working people who had bought them as non-running wrecks and restored them at home, had bought them with hard-earned retirement funds at prices far less than a modern Fiesta or had simply retained their old family cars.
They were showcasing to local people and the world what a wonderful past the city had with its motor industry. That was the case with many of the car clubs displaying their vehicles at the event. Their members, many of whom had worked at the city’s car factories and garages all their lives, would be horrified to be described as “the rich flaunting their wealth”.
Admittedly there were some expensive Jaguar Land Rover cars on display but Jessica Reece-Khan seems to forget that JLR are providing a huge number of jobs for the city and its surrounding area, without which there would be far more poverty. Why should the city council not showcase the city and what it has to offer to the world through its motoring heritage past and present?
The city won’t sell itself and create prosperity by showcasing filthy mattresses in doorways.
I have included a picture of two 1950s Standard Ensigns on our club stand owned by a council refuse collection driver from Nuneaton and a truck driver from Dudley respectively who I’m sure would take a similar view to mine of Ms Reece-Khan’s letter. Peter Lockley Southam
Why won’t council cut the hedge?
ARE the council waiting for a fatality before they cut the hedge in the central reservation on the Allesley Old Road?
We have witnessed several near accidents involving mothers with children crossing to Allesley Hall Drive.
The council has been contacted on numerous occasions with no results. M Dorrian Chapelfields
Glorious democracy for the few
WHAT a rosy picture P Wilson paints (Jun 11) in dealing with our history as a democracy.
Whenever I hear of the long and and enviable of history of British democracy extolled in this way, I immediately recall Blackadder III, episode one, in which Edmund Blackadder, commenting on the recent elections which see William Pitt the Younger elected the youngest-ever Prime Minister (1783), says: “Marvellous thing, democracy. Look at Manchester: population, 60,000; electoral roll, three.”
After that it’s hardly necessary to remind anybody how few participated in this glorious democracy. Kevin Cryan Radford
PM must speak up for rights of women
THERESA May is putting her party needs ahead of common decency over the question of legalising abortion in Northern Ireland.
There was an overwhelming vote in favour of legal abortion in the Republic, but in Northern Ireland even women raped have to give birth. The contemptible Mrs May, who relies on the support of ten reactionary democratic unionist MPs, does not want to rock the boat.
Women should be free to choose and control their own bodies everywhere in the UK. Mrs May is leading a Tory party with no moral compass. We want her to speak up for what is right for women and the UK, not just for the Tory party. Andy McDonald Tile Hill