07/11/03

Among some people there is a lack of understanding of the views of patriotic English people who realise that England is our most treasured possession and its future should not be compromised by multi-culture which is being forced on us by a minority. - Ms A Morrison, West Cornforth.

OUR Government seems more interested in helping people from other countries. They cannot sort out our own problems which just linger on and on. With no new ideas and rules, it will never alter for the younger generation, no matter who governs our country. - N Tate, Darlington.

HUNTING

LAST week one of your correspondents compared riders of horses racing along footpaths and bridleways to riders of motorbikes and off-road motors, saying that the horse riders are looked upon as something different to the riders of mechanical transport. May I offer my comments please?

First, I agree that chasing a fox up hill and down dale is something that I think is sick and should be banned, but at heart the hunt riders don't harm the public who use the walkways for walking.

But reading press reports from up and down the country, mechanical power as against horsepower seems to be killing and maiming the public.

Should he disagree, read the local papers over the last few years.

But the worst thing is that, when the accident happens, the police can't do anything because no one will inform who it was that did it. So why don't we return all the walkways to the public at large? - Peter Brown, Trimdon Village.

BRITISH SUMMER TIME

I TOTALLY agree with David Cadman's remarks on clock changes (Echo, Nov 11). - Name and address supplied.

PUBLIC SECTOR

I DO not know when and why it became necessary to add the name of Darlington to the NHS Trusts and Fire and Rescue Service of County Durham.

Darlington is a constituent part of the county and, as such, was already represented in the titles.

The firm impression I have gained is that the authorities responsible were and are indulging the vain glory of the Darlington establishment by this manifestly absurd decision.

Speak the title and it sounds clumsy, it appears spurious and its cost must have been significant.

I appeal to the powers that be to restore dignity to the county. - John Beech, Kelloe, Durham City.

WATER SUPPLIES

SO the Government is now getting on its moral high horse and indignantly complaining about those dirty ships coming to Britain, are they?

Meanwhile, they are quietly trying to introduce a chemical toxic to our water supply (fluoride) because it might save a few kids' teeth. - F Atkinson, Shincliffe.

IT can be no coincidence that so called mystery illnesses have increased with the increase in toxic chemicals used in our food, drink, medicines, crop sprays, household cleaners, aerosols and pollution from industrial chimneys etc that we all take in, affecting our bodies, minds, immune systems etc.

Fluoride is the most reactive element in the Periodic Table and is the only one that reacts with all the others. The use of fluoride in these products has increased alarmingly.

Fluoride's toxicity is equivalent with that of arsenic. It is not natural to the human body and its presence causes chemical reactions with all those other chemical we never used to have.

Whatever misguided reasons the Government has for wanting to put fluoride in our water supplies cannot be worth the risks to health.

Next week Parliament will vote on doing just that. If we don't want our drinking water poisoned with fluoride, we must write now to our MPs and urge them to vote No to fluoridation of tap water.

If we wait another week it will be too late and another of our freedoms will be gone. - A Hall, Darlington.

PAUL BURRELL

A CONSIDERABLE amount of time and energy seems to have been spent by many people from all walks of life browsing over the contents of Paul Burrell's book, A Royal Duty.

They begin with the Royal Family, then descend to the pathetic figure described as a butler.

If the people who are being caught up and overtaken by this saga would only come off the balcony of Buckingham Palace and stand on the pavement outside they would soon find an answer to the mystery which eludes them.

Paul Burrell was brought up in an era when the "classless society" was in the throes of being invented with the word "promiscuous", as the gateway to the then new modern world.

On entering royal service as a servant, his upbringing placed him at a disadvantage in his appraisal of working for and living within an aristocratic household.

Reading through various criticisms of his book, Mr Burrell appears to have misunderstood his employer's kindness and generous conversation as an approved rising of his social status. - Thomas Conlon, Spennymoor.

GHOST SHIPS

I REFER to the article "Should we allow the ghost fleet to dock?" (Echo, Nov 4).

The case against, put by Mike Childs of Friends of the Earth, hardly merits recognition. He reckons that the 13 vessels are carrying "over half a million tons of oil and fuel". By my calculations that equates to an average of over 38,000 tons per vessel, where on earth does he get these sort of figures from? Scaremongering par excellence.

By comparison, it was refreshing to read the well-balanced remarks by your other three contributors to the article.

I have been to some of the Third World ship dismantling yards and Bob Gibson's remarks about these places are certainly true. - Capt Ray Arkless, Witton-le-Wear.

I HAVE never written to a newspaper before, however the current wave of silliness over the so-called ghost ships, impels me.

Firstly, the ships being brought to Hartlepool for breaking up are ordinary ships the like of which have been broken up on the North-East coast since the first iron ships built here became obsolete.

All ships had asbestos in their construction, lagging around steam pipes, boilers and, in this case, I imagine turbines. The safe disposal of which the breakers are well practised in.

Friends of the Earth, who by quoting a few small truths in a highly emotive manner, blowing them up out of all proportion ably assisted by a few ill-informed politicians, have got Hartlepool Borough Council on the run, plus the odd member of the Environment Department.

Hartlepool must be a rich town indeed if it can afford to turn down 200 jobs and an £11m contract through sheer want of informing themselves. I wonder whether Able UK could sue? - Norman Oddy, West Scrafton, Leyburn.