06/02/04

With sentiment, in my opinion, one of the most under-rated but finest human virtues, comes compassionate feelings and a romantic view of life.

Romance not in a mawkish sense, but in love for our fellow human beings, animals and everything on our wonderful earth. I don't mean mis-placed sentiment for hardened criminals, child or wife abusers or child porn perverts, but in the sanctity of life and its preservation at all costs.

President George W Bush and Tony Blair and his cronies will have to rush to the Oxford Dictionary to see what the word means, for they are full of empty platitudes and stage-managed grins which fool some gullible souls.

Sentiment should also mean that the middle-classes don't vote for the party which will benefit their pampered lives the most, but for a government which would enhance the lives of the poor and poverty-stricken.

It seems to me than any MP who speaks for the under-privileged now has his or her comments stifled and often quashed. Government is run by a select few in Cabinet who are remote from the harsh realities of life of much of their electorate. - Ken Jackson, Northallerton.

ALCOHOL

TO DRINK six pints of beer in five hours is a binge and will leave a person drunk.

Six pints of beer contains at least 12 units of alcohol. This is broken down normally at about one unit per hour, so after five hours you might still have seven units of alcohol in the body.

It is plain that you should not need a lengthy court case to define intoxication. - MC Bateson, Consultant Physician, County Durham and Darlington NHS.

BBC

LET me offer a word of extreme caution to anyone who naively believes this Government when they say they wish the BBC to remain independent and impartial.

To do so it would have to be impartial and independent at the moment, which it most decidedly is not.

The fallout from the Gilligan affair and the Hutton Inquiry caused immense upheaval at the BBC, leaving it with the task of finding a new chairman and director-general.

Appointing the chairman is a function of government, and it does not take an Einstein to work out that as in the case of the recently departed Gavyn Davies, the next chairman will be a New Labour sympathiser.

Several 'heavies' at the weekend reported the emergence of Chris Patten as the front runner to succeed Gavyn Davies. If this speculation proves correct, Tony Blair will hail this an example of lack of political bias, as Chris Patten is a former Conservative Party Chairman.

The pro-EU, anti-Unionist, anti-capitalist, politically correct agenda already in place at the BBC would be 'safe' in Mr Patten's hands.

When the BBC's charter was first awarded it was on the basis that it was to "inform, educate and entertain."

Sadly it has been hijacked by the 'liberal elite' and has now become a tool of political propaganda. - Dave Pascoe, Press Secretary, Hartlepool Branch, UK Independence Party.

IT is entirely predictable that a right-wing extremist like Peter Mullen would accuse the BBC of left-wing bias (Echo, Feb. 3).

He is wrong to suggest that the BBC is too eager to criticise Israel, and sympathises with oppressive Arab regimes. Much of what we know of the brutal practices of such regimes is the result of courageous reporting by the BBC and what Mullen calls "the left-wing press". It is right that these reporters should avoid blaming Arabs or Muslims in general, just as they take care to distance themselves from anti-Semitism when reporting Israel's oppression of the Palestinians, and give due representation to Jews and Israelis who oppose their government's policies.

As for the suggestion of an anti-war agenda, the BBC has angered prime ministers of all political persuasions, including Churchill and Thatcher, by insisting on reporting the facts, rather than playing the propaganda game. - Pete Winstanley, Durham.

REGIONAL GOVERNMENT

IT would be difficult to accuse Martin Callanan of being impartial, and his letter (HAS, Jan 30) on the regional assembly, made that clear.

By way of providing some balance I would like to point out the Yes campaign is hardly on the back foot, with support from Sir John Hall and Swan Hunter. Indeed it would interesting for your readers to be informed as to precisely which organisations are backing the No campaign and who will be leading it.

The principal purpose of campaigning for an elected regional assembly is to take power away from civil servants at Westminster and bring it back closer to the people of the North-East. Warm words about the greatness of the region are not enough for a region that has been neglected by successive governments and remains at the bottom of the UK economic league.

Why should people of the region have to put up with a lack of investment to target health and education inequalities?

It is high time that the region had a stronger voice. - Philip Latham, Member of Yes4thenortheast.

ROAD MAINTENANCE

YOUR correspondent J Henderson's repeated criticism of the county council's winter road maintenance operations (HAS, Jan 21 and Jan 30 ) is unfounded.

As has already been widely reported, the snow which fell unexpectedly on the afternoon of Thursday, January 15 had not been forecast by the Met Office (on whose warnings our winter road maintenance operations are based) and took everyone by surprise.

When our gritters took to the roads, their progress was severely hampered by the presence of thousands of other drivers who had left work early to beat a hasty retreat home but were unable to cope with the road conditions they found.

Notwithstanding this, we reviewed our operations and last week the county council began salting operations at 2pm on Monday, January 26 and continued salting and snow-clearing until 4pm on Thursday, January 29.

Despite the advance warnings we received, the snow did not arrive until Wednesday, January 28.

During this period of time, however, more than 80 personnel were employed on winter road maintenance, working a two-shift system, for a total of 3,100 man hours.

On one day, Thursday, January 29, no fewer than 57 specialist vehicles were employed in the operation, and throughout the four days, around 5,300 tonnes of salt were used.

The overall cost of the operation last week was £480,000.

I am sorry if your correspondent did not see a gritter . . . but they were there! - Chris Tunstall, Deputy Chief Executive (Environment ), Durham County Council.