FISHING: I WONDER on what authority Peter Troy attacks the scientists who are attempting to save the North Sea fishing industry by reducing fishing quotas (HAS, Dec 9).

On what grounds can he make the wild accusations that data, methods, equipment and policy are all flawed?

Just because he is chairman of the Darlington Branch of the Federation of Small Businesses, does that make him an expert on North Sea fishing stocks?

As the Grand Banks fishing grounds off Newfoundland was overfished to its present state of extinction, it was people like him who constantly claimed that the science was wrong and flawed.

Unfortunately the scientists, who have no vested or financial interest in fishing stocks, were right and the Grand Banks are grand no more, with derelict and ruined towns and villages along the eastern seaboard to prove the point. - Eric Gendle, Nunthorpe.

EDUCATION

RESEARCHERS from Newcastle University have spent six years investigating the performance of 3,000 schools in relation to Ofsted inspection.

In July this year they reported that: "Ofsted inspection had no positive effect on examination achievement. If anything it made it worse."

The cost of Ofsted each year is £197m.

Just as controversial is the SATs system of testing and the published results and league tables for all schools. This is a re-run of the Victorian system which was equally reviled and abandoned in 1897.

The cost of SATs for 2002-3 amounts to nearly £34m, not including supply cover for teachers administering the tests. This was estimated at £15m in 1995.

Total cost each year and rising: £246m.

I know where I would look for some money for the universities. - Gloriana Morehead, Darlington.

Teesside AIRPORT

I HAVE read with interest the recent press regarding the change of name for Teesside Airport to Durham Tees Valley Airport.

I praise Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council, which was the only local authority which opposed this name, preferring instead that Durham International Airport should be used. A choice which (if we have to change the name) would have been far better and even sounds more dynamic.

But in reality the name Teesside Airport will be the name that the local population will always use no matter what they decide to call it.

So much for the voice of the people. - Mel Auton, Ingleby Barwick.

BENEFITS

LISTENING to the Radio Newcastle phone-in on Tuesday, I could not help but be appalled by the comments which were expressed.

What started as a discussion about local councils soon degenerated into a full scale attack on young single mothers and also the boys who got them pregnant.

According to those ringing in, all the problems of housing estates were generated by the above and their children. They were described as scrounging low lifes, who got themselves pregnant to get housing and live off the "fruits of the benefit system".

As a full-time carer, I have some experience of the system and have never found this cornucopia that was continually mentioned.

The arguments circulating were much like those apocryphal tales of asylum seekers and mobile phones, cars etc, generalisations not based on fact but on hearsay.

For the first time in my life I felt ashamed to be a member of the human race. I was sickened, disgusted and not a little angered by all I heard. Views coming from people who presumably consider themselves as decent, as pillars of the community.

If advocating spaying and castrating of young mothers and their young partners is now considered a decent view to hold, by those who hold themselves in such high esteem, I can only assume that society is in a worse state than I ever imagined.

For one full hour, Radio Newcastle's phone-in was turned into a 'Bigots Hotline' and those responsible should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves.

But from the way they vented their spleens, I would say there is a fat chance of that. - Steve Colborn, Seaham.

CALENDAR

IF as E Reynolds says (HAS, Dec 9), we were to divide the year up into equal parts, we might all lose one day's pay a year on his reckoning.

There are seven days in one week, 52 weeks in one year. Therefore 7x52 = 364 days.

I say keep it as it is. - Alan Raper, Darlington.

ABORTION

SOONER or later the ban on fox hunting will come before Parliament. The city boys will be against fox hunting and the others will not dare to vote against it.

Angling is cruel too, but working class lads go fishing, so they let that go. Pull a fish out of water and he suffocates painfully.

The Hunting Bill is a class thing, aimed at the "long-nosed brigade". Hunting is part of country life.

"Oh! but life is sacred," they cry. "Killing is wrong". Yet six million babies have been killed in the womb since the Abortion Bill came in.

Foxes are sacred, but not babies?

And what do the churches think of this wholesale slaughter of human life? They keep quiet, and go along with it.

The church is a coward, and so are the politicians.

I have yet to hear of one politician objecting to the killing of babies in the womb. It has become so respectable, you see. What a gutless lot.

It is illegal to kill murderers, but not babies. - Jim Ross, Rowlands Gill.

PENSIONS

STEPS were taken by the Government to direct benefits to the disabled.

pension Credit has been introduced to direct benefits to pensioners.

In a recent Echo report, MPs accused solicitors of fleecing ex-miners in the handling of claims for rightful compensation.

As guardians of the public purse from which compensation is paid, why didn't the Government (MPs), with safeguards negotiated by the miners' union, introduce measures to ensure the full award of compensation made was directed to the claimants. - A Kelly, Ferryhill.