BBC AND IRAQ: IN the dispute between the BBC and Downing Street the question now is did Andrew Gilligan receive his information from someone at the MoD or is his informant in some other Government department?

The BBC is protecting the identity of the mole, but if ever found, the informant should be prosecuted.

In a recent court case, the wife of disgraced Tory peer Jeffrey Archer was awarded damages against her former assistant because the assistant had disclosed the information that Lady Archer had once been given a facelift.

Since the contents of a Government dossier are far more important than Lady Archer's facial surgery, then it is only right and proper that the people who disclosed the contents of that dossier should also be prosecuted. - Simon Clark, Peterlee.

EVEN a British government cannot sell what it does not own, so Jim Baker's fears for the BBC (HAS, Jul 11) are unfounded.

Paul Browne's plea (HAS, Jul 12) for "the BBC to be given its independence" is just another demand for it to be put on the same commercial footing as its rivals.

The BBC already enjoys much more independence than they do, and answers to no government official, nor to any other political or commercial interests.

The government does not subsidise or control the BBC - unlike taxation, the TV licence fee goes directly to the corporation, which in turn has an obligation to all who pay it. This includes minority groups, most of whom get little or no service where broadcasting is funded entirely by advertising.

Abolition of the licence fee is attractive only to those who do not set too much store by what they see and hear on TV and radio, as long as they can cling to the illusion that they are not paying for it. - Bob Jarratt, Caldwell.

TRANSPORT POLICY

ALLEVIATING our traffic problems by spending millions of pounds on enlarging the motorways, plus taking acres of land off our countryside, is an absolute waste of taxpayers' money.

Surely the answer must be to bring the railways back in a big way. Let us have more trains with subsidised fares so that people will use them, subsidised bus fares too, so that they are full of passengers.

Bring back the branch lines that people in the countryside can use.

Just look at the thousands of cars that come in to towns and cities with perhaps just one person to stand there all day.

Just think of the thousands of cars that would be off the road if the rail fares were rock bottom.

Let's have a lot of goods trains back on track, which would take a large amount of heavy transport off our motorways for a start.

Just think how much goods a train can take compared to a dozen heavy lorries.

I do believe that the rail system should be restored to solve our traffic problems. Just make the fares cheap and fill the trains. - F Wealand, Darlington.

MANUFACTURING

DOES anyone know if we have a Government down there in London?

For the past few years we have had our manufacturing industry slowly dismantled. All these clothing jobs have been lost to take the work abroad.

These firms build these companies up in this country and when they are successful they close them down and take our jobs from us and we are dumped.

Surely our Government must know what is happening and all it cares about is banning fox hunting.

All aspects of British life are in crisis and this lot in London do nothing. Who would have thought joining a common market would bring such disaster to a country?

Is there no one who can stand up for the British people? I fear not. - G Parkin, Bishop Auckland.

DURHAM CRICKET

ALTHOUGH there is no doubt that Bill Midgley has tried, in his role as chairman of Durham County Cricket Club, to use sound financial business principles, his onslaught against club members is arrogant and egotistic and like a building society manager having a child's tantrum.

There is more to the business of running a cricket club than the financial aspect.

Although this is very important, the business of cricket itself is of equal and inseparable importance. In this respect, as former chairman, he must be held responsible for the deplorable position of the team in both its now second division leagues.

Admittedly, we have a relatively young and inexperienced side and have suffered from injuries yet again. Experienced players are also being summoned to play for national sides. Strangely, released players seem to play well after moving away from Durham.

If the team played well and showed improvement and even won a competition, support would grow and membership would increase.

Mr Midgely's policy of increasing seating for a once-every-two-year test match would seems unfounded.

It is a pity that Don Robson's vision of bringing first class cricket to the North-East has been slighted by this asinine outburst. At least Don's efforts are remembered by having a pavilion named after him. As the health club is PFI this only leaves a possibility of naming the structures being built under the new stand in appreciation of Bill making the honourable decision to resign. - Philip Metcalfe, Durham.