Letters

RAY Mallon appears to me to be like myself, proud of his birthplace (Echo, Jan 18).

I am proud to have been born 83 years ago in the County of Durham. Ray tells us that he was born 45 years ago in the North Yorkshire town of Stockton.

Hold on a bit! North Yorkshire? Forty five years ago all land south of the Tyne and north of the Tees was known as the Land of the Prince Bishops, namely the County of Durham.

People from the surrounding Durham villages would visit the famous Stockton market which was indeed situated in the widest high street in the country and at Christmas time would enjoy an evening at the pantomime, produced by our very own Frank E Franks.

Stockton racecourse was in Thornaby, North Yorkshire. - Geordie Brown, Durham City.

Spennymoor

I WONDER if Sedgefield Council Leader Brian Stephens is in the real world (HAS, Jan 9).

I am now in my 60th year, having been born and lived in Spennymoor all of that time, and I cannot recall any other party other than his being in power and thus having control over planning controls and development.

How can the Conservative Party be responsible for the state of Spennymoor town centre? It is obvious that the Conservative Party has hit a raw nerve as has your paper, whose recent reports have been fair and accurate.

There is nothing to stop Spennymoor having a reasonably successful town centre but the problem over the years has been caused by councillors who have failed to put into operation any of the ideas proposed by retailers who, after all, are there to make a living as well as provide a service.

I support the efforts being made to put things right, but please, Coun Stephens, hold your hands up for once and say your council has got it wrong. - Name and address supplied.

TONY BLAIR

I FORECAST over two years ago that Tony Blair would be remembered as the man who took the Great out of Britain.

He has now attained the rank of a dictator and unless we stand up against him our country and way of life will be gone, sold by him to Europe against the majority of our nation's wishes.

He has created a Government of puppets who never question the many things he has pushed through.

Unless we get a change of government quickly, things are not looking too healthy for our people. - F Wealands, Darlington.

EVEN the mildest among us can find ourselves embroiled in an argument, sometimes with someone we love.

If we argue with a person of normal intelligence we can listen to each other's point of view, then we can agree to disagree.

It is when we come up against a bully boy that we find ourselves at a disadvantage, the man who shouts us down, he who believes that the louder he shouts, the better his argument.

It is impossible to argue with such a person. As Shakespeare wrote: "Where ignorance is bliss 'tis folly to be wise."

A good example of this can be seen when the TV cameras are in the House of Commons.

Without any doubt, the man with the loudest voice in the House is William Hague. He can be seen and heard yelling insults across the floor of the House at the Prime Minister.

At least the impeccably-mannered Tony Blair does not reply in similar vein.

Pretty soon the electors will be asked to decide who they wish to lead the country. My money is on Tony Blair. - Simon Hargreaves, Easington Village.

PEOPLE are being unfair to Tony Blair and his refusal to accept William Hague's challenge of an TV election debate.

Tony Blair may be a spineless Prime Minister but he is not a naive one. If I had made a raft of promises to get myself elected and then allowed violent crime to rise, police numbers to fall, hospitals and schools to deteriorate and taxes to rise, I wouldn't take part in a TV debate either.

In fact I wouldn't show my face in public again.

So Mr Blair's fear of defending his own record should not be criticised but it can be seen as symbolic of New Labour's failure to deliver and Tony Blair's refusal to take responsibility for it.

The debate should still go ahead. William Hague could instead expose the high tax, europhile policies of Charles Kennedy, with Tony Blair's absence telling us much more about his Government's record than his presence would. - M Fishwick, Chairman, Durham City Conservative Future.

PARTY FUNDS

I READ with interest about Stuart Wheeler "giving" £5m to the Tory Party. What a turn around.

After all the hullaballoo over Labour's benefactors, it appears that William Hague has adopted a "do as I say, not as I do" attitude over party funding.

He may not be so keen to accept when Mr Wheeler demands to know just how his money is being spent and by whom. - Mrs E Thompson, Crook.

EUROPE

WE got another set of statistics (HAS, Jan 22) showing how we are losing out by not being in the Eurozone and soon we will see another set that will show the opposite. There are lies, damned lies and statistics.

This Government recently decided to grant subsidies from British taxpayers to Nissan to try and safeguard jobs and nobody would argue with that. The problem is that once our elected Government, with its massive majority, had decided the money should be spent it then had to go to an unaccountable, unelected commission and ask its permission to spend it.

There is also the matter of the Scarborough fishermen and the Rothman's factory in Darlington. This same unelected and unaccountable Commission has decided when the fisherman can fish and how much they can catch and it will shortly decide if Rothmans can produce high tar cigarettes and thus the number of jobs, if any, that will remain.

These decision should be made by elected and accountable British politicians.

This loss of democracy will be the true price of joining the Eurozone and should be above party politics. - D Stock, Spennymoor.