ASYLUM POLICY: BRITAIN has an enviable and tolerant reputation regarding immigration. As the fourth largest economy we also have a moral obligation to help those in grave danger. The vast majority who come to our shores contribute positively to Britain's wellbeing.

However, in the light of recent tragic events will this Government start doing just that; govern?

It has been, and always will be, the duty of the left wing to marginalise and stigmatise those who dare have an opinion on asylum as bigots and racists.

This of course is, on the whole, groundless and has led to a situation where political correctness has bullied folk into silence. If Tories are racist then why was the proposal to locate asylum centres solely in traditional Tory constituencies?

The Conservative Party policy, during the last election, of holding sites for checking folk out before entry to the country was jumped on by the Labour Party, who true to form, claimed bigotry. What nonsense this has proved to be.

This policy has and always will be based on common sense and in the interest of the safety of all of Britain's citizens.

An open door policy will only serve the extremist with different cultures isolating themselves. - Jim Tague, Chairman, Bishop Auckland Branch, Conservative Party.

WAR ON IRAQ

DENNIS Skinner argued in the House of Commons that the proposed war with Iraq is really about oil. Tony Blair answered back with the statement that if it was only about oil, Saddam Hussein no doubt would be willing to cut a deal with the West about it.

This answer is unsatisfactory because with oil supplies being so vital to the US, they want control and be able to cut deals with politicians who are in their pocket.

This is the reason why the US is also interested, and perhaps more involved than has yet been revealed, in the political turmoil in Venezuela. It is a big oil supplier, and they were never happy with the political control in the hands of the left wing President Chavez.

I continue to judge the question on the respect Iraq is now giving to the United Nations. We constantly see other considerations surfacing which can divert attention from the main point which is the respect given to the international rule of law. - Geoffrey Bulmer, Billingham.

IS it not time for those people who support Saddam Hussein to give their reasons?

Whether it be that he fought a ten-year war with his neighbouring Iran, the fact that he had ethnic minority Kurds - men, women and children - killed by bombing them with poison gas, knowing they were unarmed and could not defend themselves, or the invasion of Kuwait and taking over the oil supplies and, when finally evicted, set fire to all the oil wells hoping they could not be extinguished and they would he destroyed, causing massive pollution in neighbouring countries.

If and when the United Nations declares he has no weapons of mass destruction and leave, what will prevent him from starting to manufacture weapons of mass destruction after they have left? - E Reynolds, Wheatley Hill.

FIRE STRIKE

AS the Press interest has died down and everyone seems to have forgotten about the Fire Brigade modernisation I think it is a pertinent time to raise some issues.

Have any of you had the misfortune to call for an ambulance or police presence? If so, were you satisfied with the response time?

Most will answer no to the last question as it often takes a considerable time for these services to respond. That's what modernisation has done to these services.

The Fire Brigade, at present levels, responds to approximately 96 per cent of calls within five to eight minutes. Now bear in mind what will happen when fire engines, stations and firefighters disappear in the name of modernisation.

Do you want to be waiting longer while trapped in your bedroom, choking on thick black smoke? Or stuck in an RTA with carnage all around?

This is the realistic face of modernisation as the Bain Report would like it.

Why has the Pathfinder Report not been taken into consideration? This document took four years to compile from 11 brigades as an average and at a cost of millions. This states another £1.6bn should be put into the service, doubling the size of 86 per cent of brigades.

Consider this to the Bain Report that took 12 weeks to compile and cuts the service to the bone.

What started as firefighters asking for a professional wage has become a political end for the Government to attack and diminish the fire service. - CA Drysdale, Shotton Colliery.

LIFE OF MAMMALS

I THINK most people would find allowing a fox to enter a poultry house and destroy the inhabitants in the programme the Life of Mammals, no doubt to keep it authentic, most offensive and, for any younger viewers, rather distressing.

The programmers seem obsessed with the cruel side of nature.

Some years ago, coming home earlier than expected, I had a similar experience, the fox had killed all the birds but had only taken one and had laid the rest out in a straight line on the hut floor with hardly a mark on them. Nature has always had a cruel side as well as a caring one, but has never needed an incentive to show it. - D Punchard, Kirkbymoorside.

BAG TAX

THE 10p charge on supermarket plastic bags does not go far enough.

In particular, plastic bottles, drink cans, takeaway containers, cigarette and crisp packets, sweet wrappers and, worst of all, chewing gum, are all just as big a menace as plastic bags.

There should be a rubbish tax on all these items with the proviso that the authorities use it expressly for street and roadside cleaning.

Perhaps then we could see an end to all the disgusting chewing gum which is scattered in large quantities over the pavements and the removal of all unsightly little. - K Peacock, Hurworth Place, Darlington.