Letters

HOW many of your readers realise that the price of diesel in this country is in fact only about £1 per gallon, or 21p per litre?

Unfortunately, road users cannot buy fuel at that price because the Government imposes £2.15 per gallon in duty and then slaps 17.5 per cent VAT on top, making the total at the roadside about £3.70 per gallon.

This means that 73 per cent of the price you pay is tax of one sort or another or, to put it another way, the rate of tax imposed on the basic price of £1 per gallon is a staggering 270 per cent.

The fuel protests which almost brought the country to a halt last year were caused by successive hikes in duty levels, which meant that the tax had been increased by 33 per cent since the General Election in 1997.

The Budget in March saw a slight reduction, but this has not solved the haulage industry's problems and the Road Haulage Association commissioned independent research which suggests that tens of thousands of jobs will be lost in this country, not only in the haulage industry, but also in British businesses, which rely heavily on our services.

The forthcoming General Election gives anyone who is affected by the price of fuel an ideal opportunity to make their concerns clear to politicians and to stress the need for a level playing field with Europe in respect of fuel prices. - W Unsworth, General Manager Banks Brothers Transport.

EUROPE

IT may interest your readers to know that Brussels decides nothing whatever about matters in this country. No, decisions are taken in a perfectly democratic way in the European Parliament, European Commission (a civil service), the Council of Ministers and, ultimately, by a twice-yearly meeting of the heads of the EU member states.

Britain is one of the big players in the EU and we should be proud of that. It has at present 87 MPs in the EU Parliament. There are 626 members in all. They are democratically elected in the 15 member states. The last election was in June 1999.

Together with other large countries here in Europe, Germany, France and Italy, the UK enjoys more votes (ten) than the smaller countries in the European Council of Heads of State. Subsidiary rules decide that each country presents new legislation or proposed regulations from the European Council to their respective parliaments for approval.

Any laws in this country which have had their origin in the EU, eg criteria for clean water in rivers and on beaches, have been approved by the Houses of Parliament in London, before they came into force.

Brussels is a nice, busy city but it issues no laws. William Hague and the UKIP do know that we are not "run by the European Union". They are keeping this information from us. - EM Whittaker, Richmond.

I AM English first, British second and European third. Whereas Labour's Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, Robin Cook and LibDem's Charles Kennedy appear to be European first, Scottish second and British third.

Could someone therefore explain to me why these four gentlemen are so keen to drag us, protesting, into a European Federation via the euro when the country of their birth, Scotland, wants more and more independence? - M Heslop, Billingham.

I CANNOT understand the euro and dollar. Why do we need them?

Many of us will remember when we used to call five shillings a dollar and, at the time, we had a French teacher at our county council school. In other words, we had a foot in each camp and we still kept our pound.

Maybe, it is because we are handcuffed to France through the Channel Tunnel, Margaret Thatcher's masterpiece that I once called the Trojan Snake, in Hear All Sides. - WH Cameron, Brandon.

pension RIGHTS

EACH year, thousands of pensioners come home from hospital to discover that their pension or income support has been cut.

The rule that allows the Department of Social Security to do this is little publicised and can feel like the last straw for an older person on a low income who is recovering from a serious illness or operation.

A single person's pension is normally cut by £28.30 a week after they have been in hospital for six weeks or longer. Pensioners see it as a charge towards a stay in hospital that working people do not face.

I would like to hear from older people who have suffered from this injustice or who may suffer if they have a hospital stay coming up. - Rhian Beynon, Public Affairs Department, Age Concern England, 1268 London Road, London SW16 4ER.

STRAY HORSES

A HUMAN life is more precious that that of a horse. Harsh measures must be introduced soon in this country to combat the problem of stray horses before someone is killed.

I would suggest a law be passed whereby strays be impounded for three days and then if unclaimed, be shot.

I believe it would get the message across to help distinguish the difference between the responsible and irresponsible owners. - Name and address supplied.

I WOULD welcome the law to reflect the same penalties as the motoring public "enjoy" ie. if you park your animal where you shouldn't, or, more accurately, do not park it at all, you should pay a substantial fine to get it back.

This problem is exacerbated this year as most of these horses would, but for foot-and-mouth, by now be accompanying their owners to Appleby. - Chris Greenwell, Newton Aycliffe.