'This just shows if it's not broke don't fix it' - Your Letters: August 4
PICTURE FROM THE ARCHIVE: Yoko the chimp was showing the benefits of a pint of milk a day when this photograph was taken at West Midlands Safari Park, near Bewdley, in August, 1973. Yoko and her owner Mary Chipperfield called into the attraction for a chimpanzees tea party, much to the delight of visiting youngsters.
RETURN OF HORSES FOR POLICE FORCE
I read the article regarding West Midlands Police is to have horses at Tally Ho (even the name is horse related) Birmingham and the way it read made me chuckle a little bit, it spoke as if the West Midlands had never had horses but in 1999 the then Chief Constable Edward Crew decided they were too expensive and disbanded the mounted branch to save money but in the process many officers with a world of experience in this field, were moved to other duties and all the expertise was gone forever.
At the time this was thought to be a bad decision and there was an outcry not to disband the mounted branch because of the very important function horses were involved in, public order, football matches, parades, woodland searches and now how the tide has turned.
Now West Midlands Police have to rebuild premises, recruit officers for the role, buy horses and train them, vets will be involved, so if not having horses was wrong, what about the same for all those stations being closed, traffic divisions closed, underwater search units closed, all those officers moved, could these be shown to have been a mistake in just a few years.
This just shows if it's not broke don't fix it.
Pete Lowe, Brierley Hill
EXPRETS CAN'T SEE THE OBVIOUS
We have yet more more evidence that economic experts can never see the blindingly obvious. We are told that inflation's rise to 3.6 per cent was totally unexpected by the these so-called experts, why would that be the case? Anyone with the slightest knowledge of how real businesses seek to pass on inflation to customers would know this was coming.
I guess the 'experts' were looking at the past few months and thinking that the Chancellor got away with last autumn's inflation fuelling budget. Yes, for a short period as stocks of pre-inflationary goods are sold, there is a slight dampening but eventually, as I used to do when in business, an amount plus that needed to maintain margins would be included in a price increase.
