PRINCE CHARLES: HOW do you make royalty pleasing and acceptable to a cash-strapped British public dogged by growing unemployment? That is the task facing a besieged establishment, but it appears to have adopted a devious policy.

To quote the recent St James's Palace source on the Prince of Wales's income: "He doesn't have a string of cars, he doesn't collect art, he doesn't have a villa in the south of France."

What this means is that Prince Charles is ascribing to himself the role of the Pauper Prince and, in effect, milking publicity for purposes which are absurdly deceitful.

No institution can exist while it perpetuates such hypocrisy. You cannot claim to be ordinary Joe Bloggs from next door when you have 17 servants and an income of £10m. - Aled Jones, Bridlington.

GREG RUSEDSKI

I AM prompted to reply in defence of Greg Rusedski. Surely everybody appreciated the fact that Greg Rusedski put his heart and soul into the tennis match on Wednesday.

His determination to win was obvious from the start and anyone with any sense could feel the tension and concentration on Centre Court. This particular game had been described as the Wimbledon final.

Greg had so much pressure and pride on his shoulders that, when the false shout from the moron in the crowd was called, the failure of the umpire to allow the point to be replayed caused a reaction from Greg that any of us could be capable of.

On hindsight, the situation could have had a different outcome had Greg called for the umpire's decision to be queried.

In conclusion, the offending word used is in the English dictionary defined as "expression of annoyance" and can be accessed by the general public regardless of age.

The British public, true to form, love to put individuals on a pedestal and then destroy them.

We owe Greg Rusedski our future support. - Doreen Hull, Bishop Middleham.

MINERS' GALA

I AM a miner and a Labour supporter so I must reply to the annual bleat from Durham Miners' HQ re the non-attendance of the Labour leader at the Durham Miners' Gala.

When Neil Kinnock was leader of the Labour Party he campaigned to have the looney lefties expelled from the party as their antics were making Labour unelectable.

This angered the leaders of the NUM and, as a consequence, they did not invite Mr Kinnock to the Durham Miners' Gala. This was a terrible snub as it was traditional to invite the Labour leader to sit on the platform as an honoured guest. Because of this insult no Labour leader since then has attended the Durham big meeting.

Events have proved Neil Kinnock to be right, the lefties are no more and since their departure the party was won two landslide election victories as New Labour.

Disastrous lefty leader of our union, Arthur Scargill, no longer sits on the platform at the Gala, nor is he a guest at the County Hotel. Now he has to march with the rest of us.

And I no longer go down in the cage at three o'clock in the morning to dig coal underneath the North Sea. - Pat Roche, Shotton Colliery.

EDUCATION

ALTHOUGH Secretary of Education Charles Clarke denies standards have been lowered in school reading and writing tests for 11-year-olds (Echo, June 23), it is clear that they have. A pass mark of 57 was needed in 1996, then 49 last year, reduced to 44 this year. This is a lowering by anyone's calculation.

To explain the falling pass marks by claiming the tests are getting harder is a load of eyewash. The way to make a test fair and accurate is to keep the standard of the questions and the pass mark constant, only then can you properly gauge how well the pupils are performing year on year.

Mr Clarke should be ashamed of himself for trying to spin his way out of a corner by fiddling the results to reach the Government targets. - EA Moralee, Billingham.

YOUTH GAMES

IN my favourite role - that of proud and doting gran - I was taken to Durham to watch young people aged nine to 14 years partake in Durham's Youth Games, where children eagerly took part in many field games: cricket, football, tennis etc, and in a wide range of athletic events. Ninety of our children, and not a couch potato among them.

True to tradition they marched in, proudly bearing banners proclaiming the town they represented - most moving to see all these eager active children, the spectacle brought a tear to my aged eyes.

Well, Darlington, our youngsters did you proud. They were overall winners in both age groups. Each Darlington child went home with a gold medal.

Remember I said they marched in Olympic style bearing banners proclaiming the name of their town. Well, not quite all the teams.

Darlington was the only team without a banner. The children were disappointed, so were the parents and families of our youngsters.

I do not know who was responsible for this omission, but please rectify this before next year. - P Dinsdale, Darlington.