SMOKING: I HAVE just returned from a trip to Dublin, after taking advantage of your offer for flights to the city. A great trip, thank you.

I would also like to add weight to the campaign to promote a ban of smoking in enclosed public places. In Dublin it was a breath of fresh air to be able to sit down and enjoy a good pint of Guinness without my eyes watering due to a smokey atmosphere, then getting back to my accommodation with my clothes not stinking of someone else's stale tobacco smoke.

The bar staff seemed content to be able to take a break outside and puff on their cancer sticks, good luck to them.

Full marks to the city of Dublin for this policy in looking after those who care about their health.

I want fresh air in public places, bring it on and quickly or I'm going back to Dublin for a pint or two or three. - Kevin Howard, Saltburn.

FIREWORKS

WHAT has gone wrong with this country? We hear about human rights for everyone. What about the basic right to have a bit of peace and quiet in your own home?

I can well remember, not so many years ago when I was young, that if November 5th fell on a Sunday we had to have our fireworks on either the 4th or 6th, and yet now, well after fireworks night, they are still banging every few minutes.

That is apart from the fact that they've been going off regularly since September.

We're told to keep pets safely indoors on November 5th. How can we know when it's safe to let them out? And spare a thought too for homeless cats and dogs, terrified night after night. And, for that matter, for us humans who are fed up of being startled with loud bangs long after Guy Fawkes Night is past.

I think all it is now is an excuse for anti-social behaviour. - Mrs B Bates, Shildon.

AS predicted, the new legislation concerning the use/misuse of fireworks has proved to be a waste of time, as the culprits cannot be caught. Any historical relevance of fireworks to the Gunpowder Plot has long since disappeared, so we have to suffer both the noise and more serious consequences at any time of the day or night for weeks on end.

To have explosives readily available in shops, in a society which has virtually surrendered its streets after dark to gangs of youths, is, quite frankly, a nonsense. - G Carr, Darlington.

REGIONAL TELEVISION

MOST of us will have seen or read about the demonstration by Tyne-Tees staff at the weekend in Newcastle, and it is all because of the Ofcom report into Public Service Television Broadcasting.

This is another issue about these bureaucrats in London telling us in the North-East what we should have, just like the regional assembly, and we know how that backfired on them.

We are entitled to have a regional television service and if there was a total commitment by these people in London they would give back the licence payment of £15m-£20m to Tyne-Tees, and allow it to be reinvested in local programmes for the benefit of the local people here, thus enhancing our lives and keeping people in employment.

I would encourage people concerned to write to Ofcom and register their opposition to these plans. - County Councillor John Shuttleworth, Durham County Council.

REGIONAL ASSEMBLY

THE North-East rejected a regional assembly largely because most people believed it would cost money and achieve nothing.

The No campaign successfully exploited the public's cynicism about politicians, but where does this cynicism come from? How many stories do we see in The Northern Echo that present politicians and politics in a positive light? Very few.

Instead, we see headlines (Echo, Oct 26) proclaiming 'School standards rise branded an illusion'. In fact, in this article was a recognition that school standards have risen, but there is debate about by how much.

A political achievement was turned upside down in one headline.

It is journalism that is feeding public cynicism about politics, creating a decline in our democracy as more people are put off from becoming politicians or joining political parties.

The referendum has stopped an important extension of democracy into a largely unaccountable tier of regional bureaucracy. Personally, it has stopped me from being able to vote about how economic development funding is spent in the region or where new housing gets built. I feel that I have been denied a democratic right.

More generally, it has stopped the people of the North-East being able to demonstrate that we can govern some of our own regional affairs - and on that basis press for more regional devolution as a means of releasing the cultural, political and entrepreneurial talent that is now likely to continue draining away from the region. - Tim Blackman, Durham.

AROUND £10m has been squandered on Labour's referendum for a North-East Regional Assembly. Money which should have been spent on schools, hospitals and police.

With the idea binned, North-East Labour MPs need to start earning our votes and delivering for the region.

From Labour we want less talk and more action. Just don't hold your breath. - Michael Fishwick, City of Durham and Easington Conservatives.

PETER MULLEN

PETER Mullen (Echo, Nov 9) displays a strange recall in blaming all his perceived ills on atheism.

The liberalisation of TV was mainly the work of Conservative governments, abortion law reform was instigated by David Steel, a regular churchgoer, whilst the pandemonium of casinos is under the present government of Tony Blair, with the encouragement of American casino operators, the churchgoers he so admires. When did Tony become an atheist, Peter?

Euthanasia is not yet legalised. What a farrago of nonsense, as so often from your columnist. - Eric Gendle, Middlesbrough.

WHAT an extraordinary blinkered and bigoted outburst from Peter Mullen (Echo, Nov 9).

To pick out just two points.

First, apart from the cynical ploy of bashing all atheists for the lack of morality of some, it is a bit rich to lay all anti-social behaviour at the door of non-believers, when there is a much longer history of religionists persecuting and killing other religionists, and when there are atrocities such as the beheading of hostages in Iraq in the name of religion.

Second, there is every reason to be alarmed by "the religion and moral values" of those who have given the amoral Bush regime another four years. Millions of these believers demonstrate a simplistic, discriminatory morality which we could say is their business, except that they have an immense influence on the approach of the Bush administration to foreign aid (religious strings attached) and to foreign policy in the Near East (Israel must occupy the West Bank to fulfil Biblical prophecies). - John Hodge, Newcastle-upon-Tyne.