ZURBURAN PAINTINGS

THE Church Commissioners are to sell the paintings of Jacob and his Twelve Sons which are now hanging at Auckland Castle.

It is a different world in which we live today. Faced with spiralling overheads, many industrial and commercial organisations have been forced to make staff redundant and to introduce more economic methods of working in all departments. Some firms have moved their headquarters out of London to seek less expensive sites in the provinces.

Church congregations have dwindled in recent years, no doubt, but the income has also fallen. Can the church really afford to have their bishops living in such palatial buildings and provide them with the staff that such places probably need?

Instead of selling the family silver, the church commissioners should consider selling Auckland Castle itself, and a lot of other magnificent buildings in which bishops are still residing, and take a good hard look at the possibility of making improvements in their own organisation.

The Zurburan paintings are part of our national heritage and too much of that has already been sold off and shipped overseas in recent years. - B Strahan, Sherburn, Durham.

I HAD already drafted a letter to you with regard to the Zurburan paintings when I read Tony Kelly's letter in HAS (Sept 11). He describes the subject as "repulsive looking geezers in ridiculous get-ups".

These paintings are part of our North-East heritage and we should not lose them.

Nor should we lose the police unit at Harperley Hall. We have the experience here in the North-East. Why should we leave it to another part of the country? - E Dobson, Bishop Auckland.

QUESTION TIME

THE well known left-wing leanings of vast chunks of the BBC starred again with last week's Question Time programme and subsequent live radio shows.

Although in favour of freedom of speech, sections of this blatantly loaded live audience took this liberty to gutter-level extremes.

To allow participants to show such insensitivity only two days after the tragic events in the US brought tears to my eyes.

Would Americans or Britons be allowed to sit in a Baghdad TV studio and hold similar views over Iraq and Saddam Hussein? Would we be allowed to burn the Iraqi flag on the crowded streets of the same city?

Mr Dyke's apology to the former US ambassador present during the show was another embarrassment. He should have been publicly shamed and sacked. As should Mr Dimbleby, who fronts the show.

Shame on them all, they don't represent this tolerant nation. - J Tague, Bishop Auckland.

AMERICA

YOU have published letters in recent days blaming America for its troubles.

All America has done in the Middle East is try to stop the annihilation of the Jewish state, a state which was voted into existence by the United Nations in 1949, and which the UN seems to have left to America to defend.

As to Iraq, we should be grateful for American help in the Gulf War, as it helped stop Saddam Hussein; a man who deliberately set fire to 400 oil wells in Kuwait. - G Paterson, Consett.

TERRORISM

HARRY Mead's comments on terrorism (Echo, Sept 19) had nothing to do with what happened last week in America.

While his progression of events and the fact that history and its lessons give an easy option when one wants to blame someone, the truth has more to do with evil and its manipulation.

The Arabs wish to consider themselves the victims, but the fact remains their conduct is far from satisfactory when one looks at many states and the despots who rule them. To use God as an excuse is inexcusable and it does not make room for negotiation and tolerance. - J Young, Crook.

I WAS shocked and disgusted by the comments of some Labour MPs. They seem to think that the terrorist attack on America was somehow justified. I do not know how their warped thinking came to this conclusion, but they are out of step with the vast majority of decent people, both here and abroad. The cowardly, murderous attacks on innocent people, including children, could only be justified by a madman or madwoman.

Some good may come from evil. The hated, crackpot Taliban regime in Afghanistan may be brought down as a side effect of the hunt for Osama bin Laden and his henchmen.

Also, Americans may now stop giving money to terrorist organisations such as the IRA to fund their spurious cause of an united Ireland

The problem with extremists is that they cannot accept logical arguments that conflict with their entrenched beliefs.

Members of Parliament should not be giving support to extremists and would-be terrorists. I think that most right-thinking people will support any American or joint action to bring the people responsible for these atrocities to justice. - F Copley, Newcastle.

FARMING

IN BEATRIX Potter's Lakeland, Hunter Davies, the well-known author, asks: "Are farmers really any better than the rest of us at looking after our heritage? They poison the fields with chemicals, destroy hedges to make way for their machines, litter the dikes with empty plastic fertiliser bags, changing round their stock and fields to catch some passing EEC subsidy."

This was written in 1988. - Hugh Pender, Darlington.

THANK YOU

I WOULD like to say a heartfelt thank you to the gentleman who, at about 11am on September 14 just outside Burnopfield, stopped to inquire about my welfare.

The reason why I was parked at the side of the road at that particular time is, of course, between my conscience and me. However, for someone to take the trouble to turn round then pull up behind me to make sure I was okay was an act of extreme kindness. - DC Elsom, Stanley.