WTH reference to the poem in last week’s edition entitled War Weekend, Pickering 2011.

I would like to thank Seren Smith for expressing so movingly what I and, I imagine, many other Pickering residents feel about the annual war weekend.

I understand that local businesses make a lot of money during this weekend but I would suggest that it is unethical to make money on the back of war, whether real or pretend.

Those who enjoy the ‘fun’ might perhaps go and visit a real war to see how much fun it is. This year it was not possible to avoid the ‘war’ even by staying at home, since the peace was shattered on both Saturday and Sunday by the infernal din of machine guns and mortars from the showfield.

Jane Bizien, Ruffa Lane, Pickering