An eye-catching campaign? Absolutely. Grounded in fact? We think not.

Does Tony advertise junk food? Well, if Frosties is junk then so is a glass of fresh orange juice; two slices of toast and jam and a cup of tea with two teaspoonfuls. The average bowl of Frosties contains less sugar than all of these and less than many people add to their unsweetened breakfast cereals.

Secondly, is Tony a "marketing menace" responsible for childhood obesity? Tony first appeared more than 50 years ago; he arrived decades before a childhood obesity epidemic did and getting rid of him won't get rid of the problem.

Using him to market healthy choices is an idea we agree with. In fact, Tony, Coco and Snap, Crackle and Pop have been promoting active living and healthier lifestyles for years.

As ever, the problems are complex and the solutions are not simple. Magic bullets, such as banning characters like Tony, don't exist. Looking back a generation to when we were more active and ate a more balanced diet could be a good place to start.

We firmly believe that we, including Tony, Coco, Snap, Crackle and Pop can help us get to that place.

Healthy free meals idea was a winner

From: Alan Johnson, MP for Hull West and Hessle.

YOU are wrong in your assertion that Hull councillors had to stop the free healthy school meals initiative because it was unsustainable ("No Free Lunch", Yorkshire Post, September 25).

It stopped when the Lib Dems, who opposed the scheme from its inception, formed a minority administration.

In a city where there is a
high proportion of children
on free school meals and problems with childhood obesity and poor educational attainment, the policy was progressive, imaginative and sustainable.

As the independent report by Hull University shows, it increased take-up dramatically, improved behaviour and carried the healthy eating message out of the school and into children's homes.

We need to complete the analysis in primary schools elsewhere and cost-effectiveness will be a central part of the process of assimilating the results.

It's the same old plan from the Tories
From: Terry Palmer, South Lea Avenue, Hoyland, Barnsley.
TORY leader Dave Cameron tells us all, during his party conference speech, that he has a plan. Would he, or any one of his disciples, please tell us what it is?

The only "plan" he seems to be advocating is what the Tories always advocate, the bashing of the vulnerable, tax cuts paid for by slashing public services and by increasing taxes in the first place. Thatcher, Major, Hague, Duncan Smith and Howard could all have delivered most of his speech and he does not con me into thinking he would ever clothe poor children either.

He tells us there is no money to help and the cupboard is bare, yet borrowing is at 38 per cent of national income; it was 44 per cent under Thatcher.

So Cameron smiles, but scratch the skin and what do we find? A posh Tory Right-winger of old who fools no one, only his own kind.

From: David Quarrie, Lynden Way, Acomb, York.

DAVID Cameron says he is "a man with a plan". Yes, but it is the wrong one. Nowhere in it does it say: "I will bring the UK out of the European Union." Until that happens we will continue to sink. The man who above all talks the most sense about the financial difficulties facing Britain is the Liberal Democrat MP Vince Cable. He not only knows why we are in such a mess, he has been warning of this for ages, but no one would listen or act, and he has some very good ideas on what to do to get us on the straight and narrow again.

He, unlike most of today's MPs, is a fully trained and experienced businessman. He has held "proper" jobs, and knows what he is talking about. Labour should either adopt most of his policies or invite him on board.

From: Graham Lyons, Almondbury, Huddersfield.

FURTHER to Bernard Ingham's column (Yorkshire Post, October 1) suggesting David Cameron should declare war on political correctness – I wish he had thrown in a re-think on human rights law as well.

Another few weeks and we will have the talk of banning Christmas and all its trappings for fear of offending. Who are the people that inspire these views?

Forgotten beauty of the Yorkshire Wolds

From: Colin Lawson, Beverley Road, Driffield.
IT was pleasing to see Bridlington featured on the back page of the Yorkshire Post (September 29).

What a shame that Frederic Manby missed the opportunity of informing potential visitors to the East Riding that the journey to Malton would involve a most picturesque tour across the Yorkshire Wolds. Just as he says in his second paragraph, Bridlington often takes second place to Scarborough and Whitby, so the Wolds take second place to the Moors and the Dales.

Come next spring and summer despatch him to explore the many, still peaceful highways and byways of the Wolds, especially the latter and some of the less frequented hamlets and villages.

I would have thought that recent articles and features about David Hockney and his re-awakened interest in the Wolds would have alerted you and your staff to the charm, the openness and the peace about this much underestimated landscape.

Path that led to building society's downfall

From: JM Birnie, Park
Drive, Rochdale Road, Halifax.

BACK in 1972, my wife and I bought a house with the help of the Bradford & Bingley building society for the then princely sum of £3,250.

Before we could take out a loan, we were interviewed by the B&B branch manager who looked us up and down and said: "You won't be having any children yet, will you?" We took this to mean you won't be able to afford the mortgage if you have offspring.

We took his advice and didn't have any children for four years by which time I had a better paid job and the repayments were less of a burden on our monthly budget.

This is now called financial prudence, a word much used by our Prime Minister. We struggled with interest rates of up to 17 per cent in the 1970s but we got through.

Fast forward to eight years ago. The then management of the B&B wanted to become a bank for their own benefit. They called it demutualisation.

They offered each customer with a loan or savings a financial bribe if they voted
for their plan. If you had
a loan and savings this meant, in my opinion, two bribes.
The management got their wish, why wouldn't they?
Their customers took the
bait and voted for the money.

During my working life I had a business. At the first interview with my accountant, he told me to draw a line down the middle of an A4 page and put income down one side of the line and outgoings on the other side.

If the two totals at the bottom of the page, after paying
myself a wage, were the same,
I had happiness.

Why didn't the B&B directors use this financial model? Charles Dickens wrote about it in his books, but they knew better apparently. They had twice as much debt down one side of the page as deposits down the other.

From: Don Burslam, Elm Road, Dewsbury Moor, Dewsbury.

IT should now be clear to everyone that the rush to turn building societies into banks contained the seeds of the present disaster.

Building societies were initially non-profit making concerns and their objectives compared with banks were like chalk and cheese.

This would be bad enough but the banks themselves had changed from prudent financial management to a more venture-based operation with an aggressive sales orientation.

It is not as though this wasn't common knowledge at the
time and the combination
was truly toxic, to use the fashionable word.

My conclusion is that inadequate though our politicians are, those responsible for building societies and banks are even worse.

Briefly...

Wrong route for railway

From: Robert Craig, Priory Road, Weston-super-Mare, North Somerset.

THE Conservative Party proposes using high-speed trains to replace flights. They say that they will fund a high-speed rail link from London to the North via Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds and eventually to Scotland.

That proposal seems to show ignorance of the geography of England.

Surely what is needed is a high speed rail in the "spine" of England, directly connecting London and Edinburgh via Leeds and Newcastle-upon-Tyne, with links to Birmingham and Manchester.

Long live the seagulls

From: Ken Holmes, South Duffield Road, Cliffe Common Cliffe, Selby.

COUNCIL officers at Bridlington who threatened elderly residents with the loss of their homes, with no hope of being re-housed, also with a possibility of being sent to prison, for feeding ducks and seagulls have caused great upset and much anxiety to the kindly residents (Yorkshire Post, September 30).

Whoever authorised the sending of these intimidating letters are not fit for purpose and should be dismissed from their employment with ignominy immediately. Long live the residents, ducks and seagulls, all being part of the territory of a seaside resort.

Voting in a computer age

From: M Swan, East Causeway Crescent, Leeds.

I READ Arthur Quarmby's letter (Yorkshire Post, October 1) and agreed with most of it.

However, what happens if a home does not, for one reason or another, have a computer?

Are they disenfranchised? If we don't have one, the alternatives are: a) the polling station or b) postal voting.

Perhaps we need MPs who are not just in it for themselves.

No Churchill

From: Bob Nelson, Bilton, Harrogate.

IT made my blood boil to read (Yorkshire Post, October 1) that Cherie Blair has stated that when history is written her husband will be "up there with Churchill".

Having lived through both the Churchill and Blair eras, I can assure Mrs Blair her husband is not good enough to stand in the shadow of
Mr Churchill. Is the woman befuddled?