Dear Editor, Mike Nattrass MEP suggests that "the Government is busy pretending they are promoting Britishness when power over every aspect of our lives is being transferred to Europe" ( 'Patriotic oath ceremony no substitute for history', Post Agenda, March 18).
Mr Nattrass speaks for a section of the right in this country whose understanding of national identity has always been inward-looking. Nowadays this opinion finds its home in UKIP.
A notion of Britishness that denies our European identity is the polar opposite of the inclusive Britishness that has served this country so well. Without a British identity that has relevance for all who make their lives here, the children and grandchildren of immigrants - who make up such a large and vibrant part of this city's population - would feel little connection to the UK.
Mr Nattrass also seems to believe that British identity is so weak it will be smothered by Europe. But how is it that the French, the Germans, the Italians and the Spanish can be fiercely pro-EU and yet retain identities that are recognised around the world? The vitality of our national symbols, be they our sports teams, our culture, or our democratic institutions, would suggest Britishness is anything but weak.
My second point is that the blind Europhobia of figures like Mike Nattrass will in fact damage the country they claim to love so much. How can the UK face growing global challenges by drawing in on itself? Huge tests such as climatic and demographic changes can be effectively dealt with at an inter-governmental level. If so-called patriots such as Mr Nattrass have their way, the UK will be unable to adapt.
Only last week, Mike Nattrass demonstrated how he puts his hatred of Europe above British people's rights. The European Parliament voted to fund a scheme that will help elderly people live more independent lives by introducing technology into their homes. This technology can bring remarkable benefits - it can predict when someone is at risk of a heart attack, and summon help if necessary.
The West Midlands is a pioneer in this area, but would that sway Mike Nattrass? A total of 431 MEPs voted in favour of these ground-breaking plans, and 10 against. Mr Nattrass was in the latter group.
NEENA GILL
Labour MEP for the West Midlands
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Money would be much better spent on the needy
Dear Editor, The money raised for Sport Relief - some £20 million - will help some desperately needy people. The reality is, however, this will only be the tip of the world's 'needy people iceberg', so let's hope every penny is distributed honestly and responsibly.
TV coverage of the fundraising, and the lives of the people it is destined to help, was both entertaining and disturbing, at times even heartbreaking: children in Africa orphaned by Aids and infected by it themselves; two young sisters in Bangladesh, scavenging for plastic, scratching with bare hands in streets ankle-deep with refuse and sewage - working from dawn till dusk, only to realise nine pence between them.
How fortunate we are.
Also disturbing was what can only be described as an act of mindless vandalism on the garden of Sir Steve Redgrave, by the Top Gear team of Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James Mays. And didn't the look on Sir Steve's face say it all when he saw the decimated state of his pride and joy? How might Clarkson respond to someone trashing one of his cars?
He was seen to blast the heads off flowers and the branches off trees with a 12-bore shotgun, and loved it. Hammond dug a massive hole in the lawn, before toppling into it with the digger. The three mindless morons then tried to push it upright - all three-tons of it - before summoning a huge crane to right it, and decimating the lawn with its caterpillar tracks in doing so.
Then to cap it off, Clarkson spread 20-tons of concrete over the lawn and Mays torched a brand-new garden shed. How much did this vandalism cost? Money that would have been of huge benefit to the needy. Did any of the Top Gear team get hands-on with the needy, as did other celebrities?
Anyone who thinks the Top Gear team were funny (Steve Redgrave certainly didn't), surely has a sick mind? Who pays these people?
This kind of television is surely responsible for some of the mindless vandalism that plagues the streets of Britain: flowerbeds and graveyards being trashed; phone boxes and bus shelters being smashed; plastic litter bins and anything else that burns, being torched.
Do we need the likes of Clarkson on TV, or indeed in Britain? I think not.
ALLAN RAMSAY
Radcliffe
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Tribute from the city
Dear Editor, The tragic death of Oscar winning UK film maker Anthony Minghella has brought tributes from far and wide about his life and his career. Quite rightly so, as he was one of the most talented writer-directors working in the international film industry in recent years.
And, here's a tribute from Birmingham.
Anthony Minghella was also a most charming and thoughtful man, as those who witnessed his support to film making in Birmingham can bear testimony.
He was a great supporter of the Film Festival in Birmingham, especially in the early years of his own film-making career, long before the award winning success of his movies, The English Patient, The Talented Mr Ripley, Cold Mountain etc.
After his television work in the late 1980s on Boon, Grange Hill and Morse, he took up my invitation to present his first feature film at the Birmingham Festival in the early 1990s - a very touching film about a bereaved woman, played by Juliet Stevenson, literally conjuring up her dead lover, Alan Rickman: that film was Truly Madly Deeply.
He engagingly introduced his film and then after the screening, with great charm, wit and thoughtfulness (and bad timing - we over ran!), he freely discussed the making of his debut feature film with an enthralled audience, keen to learn from this eloquent personality.
Later he laughed out loud when my seven-year-old son Dan, called his film Truly Madly Shirley. It's one of those moments I've always remembered.
"A possible title for the American re-make," was his comic riposte.
As Film Festival colleagues in later years will recall, Anthony Minghella kept up his interest in - and support for - the Festival in Birmingham.
The world of film has lost a great champion.
ROGER SHANNON
By email
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Whitby is ignoring all the objections
Sir, I was amazed to see your headline on Wednesday's front page ( 'Whitby: library WILL go, Post March 19). Can the man not read? Or is he totally disinterested in what Birmingham citizens think?
All sorts of perfectly valid objections have been put forward, but he does not seem to have noticed. It seems perfectly obvious that it makes sense to develop the library on the present site rather knock it down and put up some "iconic" structure which will not serve as well.
And the idea of merging it with the Repertory Theatre (and knocking that down as well) is quite absurd.
Coun Whitby clearly made his mind up about this a long time ago and no logical argument is going to deflect him.
I look forward to another headline: Whitby WILL go.
I might also add that I was worried to see your editorial comment. I buy The Post mainly for news and do not expect you and your staff to take sides on an issue of this sort.
STANLEY HOLLAND
Bournville
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A more efficient way of running the economy
Dear Editor, I am glad Clare Short recognises that imposing our model of development on the developing world is inviable "because there is not enough petrol, water, trees for wood, grain for animal feed and capacity to absorb pollution for everyone to live as we do" (It's about far more than just changing light bulbs, Post Agenda, March 18).
I recall many public debates, when Clare Short was Minister for International Development, at which anti-globalisation protesters were criticised for wanting to keep the poor in poverty when they made this same point.
As Clare now says, the global shortages confronting us call for an entirely new, resource-efficient way of running the economy, here and across the world. This means bigger changes than the low-carbon measures currently proposed within the economic strategies of both the city and the region.
It also requires those working on national economic policy and international development to acknowledge and act on this too, as well as more local discussion at Birmingham's forthcoming climate change festival.
KAREN LEACH
Digbeth
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Prejudiced policies
Dear Editor, We need the best, regardless of colour and gender. White men could be blocked from getting jobs under anti-discrimination laws being considered by the Equalities Minister Harriet Harman, who is also, as it happens, occupier of that most unequal post - Minister For Women.
Ms Harman is so prejudiced in her views and policies, I am surprised she has not been called to explain her prejudices before the courts, under New Labour's politically correct human rights and equality laws that have done so much to fracture our country.
There can't be anything better for us generally than having the right people, in the right place, at the right time.
Ms Harman should be questioned by the police over racism, because she is seeking preference for blacks and woman, instead of giving equal opportunities to all - including white men.
NAME AND ADDRESS SUPPLIED
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Many reasons to keep Library
Dear Editor, Your recent editorial is wrong to dismiss Friends of the Central Library as a "single-issue" group (Library must go, Post Agenda, March 19).
There are many reasons why the Library should be kept and its architectural merit, as judged by English Heritage, is just one of them.
Its demolition alone will cause tons of carbon dioxide to be emitted. Building a new library, however eco-friendly it might be, will add tons more.
We have seen no plans of the proposed "regeneration" of Paradise Circus, so we can't even tell whether the sacrifice of a working library for more office buildings is justified.
So, whether the building is listed or not, Friends of the Library will go on trying to save it.
ALAN CLAWLEY
Friends of the Central Library
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Wake up and smell the direct debits
Dear Editor, Keeping Post Offices open is all very well - but to do what?
Benefits are now almost entirely paid by electronic transfer, a huge section of the population now applies for their car tax online and paper clips and batteries can be purchased from the supermarket.
If pensioners insist on having somewhere to congregate why not start a social club?
ADAM RAYBOULD
Kingsbury
