RETIREMENT: GIVEN that there appears to be a link between retiring early and subsequently living longer, it would seem obvious for such a manipulative and anti-working class government to simply ask us all to work longer and die younger, therefore reducing the total requiring money from the reduced pot and leaving more for MPs to dish between themselves and cronies.

This whole sorry saga is partly the blame of this downright nasty regime, spuriously called New Labour, who have taken since 1997, and continue to take, £5bn from the pension pot of ordinary hard-working people each year.

They now stand on the sidelines and offer little in terms of a way forward for those conscientious Britons, who yes, knew it is partly a gamble, but whose only wish was to fend for themselves come retirement.

Thanks Tony, for nowt, as per usual. - Jim Tague, Bishop Auckland Conservatives.

SCHOOL ARSON

DOES Gemma Phillips (HAS, Jul 7) not realise that the damage done to the school by the two young lads could have been fatal, if the fire they started had been just smouldering overnight and had then broken out when the pupils were all in class?

Does she realise that arson is costing our people millions of pounds in damage to property, ie homes, public buildings, industries and farms, plus the loss of life of men, women and children?

I also hope that she can also realise the indignation and upset of the people of Middleton-St-George at the stupid actions of these young arsonists, who were responsible for the destruction of a perfect school.

Thousands of people have lost their lives and prospects because of arson.

Arson equals death, damage and destruction and despair to millions of our people and millions of pounds of tax payers' money. I trust young people realise this. - FG Wealands, Darlington

IRAQ

IT seems that the BBC has declared war on the Government.

BBC correspondent Andrew Gilligan fired the first shots when he attacked both Alastair Campbell and the Prime Minister over the war with Iraq.

It should come as no surprise to those people at the BBC to discover that the Government will fight back with all guns blazing.

When Mrs Thatcher was prime minister she used her power to sell off the utilities, such as water, gas and electricity. This Government could use its powers to sell off the BBC.

It was brave of the BBC officials to attack the establishment, but there are times when brace men can be foolish.

This could be the end of the BBC. - Jim Baker, Peterlee.

THE intelligence service of any country bases their information on what they can glean from any source and at least calculate what they can from it.

So if anyone thought that the wily Saddam had lots of weaponry, helped by years of non-compliance with the UN, they felt the need to found out the hard way.

We may or may not find out exactly what he had, but for goodness sake, drop this pointless argument about the exactness of information from the intelligence service. It is never going to be 100 per cent right. - Fred Atkinson, Shincliffe.

I AGREE entirely with your editorial (Echo, Jul 8). The squabble between the Government and the BBC is indeed a sideshow.

Tony Blair insists that evidence of Saddam's weaponry will be found, and the Foreign Affairs Commitee, while stating that "the jury is still out" on the question, implies that such evidence would exonerate the Government.

This is another sideshow. The Government must demonstrate that there was a real and imminent danger that those weapons might be used to attack America or Britain, either directly with long-range missiles, or indirectly by supplying them to terrorists. Neither possibility stands up to scrutiny.

Many argue that the removal of what was undoubtedly an exceptionally brutal and murderous regime justifies the war, regardless of its illegality. They should consider the long-term consequences of disregarding the UN and international law, and ask themselves if a more imaginative approach might have solved the problem without killing thousands of Iraqi civilians, as well as many thousands of Iraqi soldiers and dozens of British and American servicemen and women. The killing in Iraq continues, and the threat from International terrorism remains undiminished. - Pete Winstanley, Durham.

ANTHONY Eden's career was cut short by Suez. He invaded a sovereign state which had annexed an international zone within its own borders. He had a case - a limp one - but a case nonetheless.

Tony Blair took us to war as a result of being duped by the least impressive American administration in living memory. He took us to war on the basis of poor intelligence information, in an age when intelligence gathering is infinitely more sophisticated than it was in 1956.

Five thousand Iraqi civilians are dead. Thousands of Iraqi soldiers are dead. Hundreds of coalition troops are dead. Billions of dollars and pounds have been squandered. Who cares about 'sexed up' documents and the synthetic indignation of New Labour ministers and their apparatchiks?

As a life-time Labour voter (I am 55) I believe that Blair must go. - Alan Marsden, Penrith.

WIMBLEDON

SPEAKING as an elderly armchair tennis fan, I think this year's Wimbledon was one of the worst I have seen.

I wonder what other tennis fans thought about it. - Olive Ward, Darlington.