Readers' letters - August 17

If we are to see DNA being used to identify fly-tippers, it should also be used to identify irresponsible dog owners.

Despite ‘doggy-do’ bins being provided, some owners drop their ‘packages’ in the street, even in people’s hedgerows.

There are also walks along canals and around reservoirs, where it’s a common sight, with ‘poo-bags’ hanging from branches and fences.

With disabled/elderly people having to clean-up outside their gate once a week, (wheelchairs roll through it) and blind people (perhaps due to toxocariasis/roundworm) maybe stepping in it, it should attract a minimum (not maximum) fine of £1,000 – and this should increase year on year like the cost of living.

When crimes are committed, aren’t any tools which are used, confiscated? Why not confiscate the vehicles of fly-tippers? There should also be points given to drivers where fag-ends, and so on, are thrown out the window.

Evidence can be caught on dash-cams/head-cams.

Dog owners who drive their dogs into the countryside and leave a deposit (bagged or otherwise) should also attract points.

Allan Ramsay

Radcliffe

sport

Too much emotion

At the Olympics 2012, the BBC elected to focus its reporting on how ‘emotional’ it all was for the athletes.

It got so annoying I had to watch some races with the sound off and turn over channels every time an athlete was interviewed.

This time they’ve elected to stay with the ‘emotional’ aspect but also comment constantly on the ‘back story’ of any athlete. Thus we got endless references to a swimmer’s alleged fear of water when he was little or how hard they work getting up at 5am every morning.

Millions of people get up at that time for work and don’t go on about it and it’s every day, not just in the build-up to a competition. We’ve also had constant references to, and interviews with, relatives going on about how tough it is for them. Am I the only one who finds this kind of manipulative presenting technique annoying?

R Kimble

Address supplied

politics

Epitaph of Labour

UKIP is the Jeremy Kyle show, the Lib Dems are, at best, Emmerdale and Labour is now Christmas EastEnders.

Journalists across the land are leafing through their thesauruses trying to find synonyms for ‘cataclysm’.

And while all the parties that claimed to be socially democratic race towards the cliff edge, the officially titled Social Democratic Party, now a grassroots Eurosceptic outfit, is re-emerging.

Surely this is Labour’s epitaph?

C Devine

via email

economy

Living beyond our means

What is going on in this mad world of ours?

I read that the bank rate might drop to negative and we might have to pay to put our money in a bank, yet moneylenders still charge us 29.5 per cent.

We must be still living far beyond our means as quantitative easing by our banks is still many billions a month, making our pound worth almost nothing, yet our rich seem to be getting richer every year.

A Hague via email