IMMIGRATION: BOB Jarratt (HAS, Mar 4) says my reassurances could have come from the Home Office. As I stated, the statistics I used did come from the Home Office. Other facts and figures I have used came from the Office for National Statistics.

These figures are not produced by politicians, but by civil servants with no particular political axe to grind. Migration Watch UK does not have a more reliable or impartial source of information.

Incredibly, Mr Jarratt describes Migration Watch as "non-political" and then admits that the group was set up to "to lobby government for a managed immigration policy, which Britain has clearly lacked for many years".

This is not a politically neutral starting point, and its basic premise is, to say the least, open to question. - Pete Winstanley, Durham.

WHAT a heart warming story about two asylum seekers from Togo from the Stockton LibDem candidate Mike Barker (HAS, Mar 4).

It was very moving to hear that they could be killed if they returned to their homeland.

Just one question: why have they come to settle in Great Britain when they could have had a free life in South Africa or in the north in Spain?

The answer is simple. We now have two more asylum seekers in our country, sponging off our kindness, when they could have settled elsewhere. We must close the doors on this asylum madness. - Christopher Wardell, Darlington.

FOX HUNTING

I DO not like fox hunting any more than I like bear baiting, cock-fighting, hare-coursing or any other country "tradition", but I believe it was a mistake to ban it. There are more important things for the Government and the Police to spend their time on.

However, now that the ban is in force the fox-hunting fraternity should obey the law and not seek to frustrate the democratically-expressed decision made in Parliament.

It is not acceptable for people to seek to find ways round the 1aw simply because they don't agree with it. This sort of thinking leads to anarchy.

I may not agree with the 70mph speed limit on motorways but that doesn't mean I am entitled to drive at 80mph. Even when it is safe to do so.

If a law is considered to be unfair there are democratic, law-abiding ways to seek to get it changed. If they are unsuccessful then defeat should be accepted gracefully. It's the price that has to be paid for living in a democracy. - Jim Allan, Hartlepool.

SNOW

I LIVE at the entrance to the Tow Law industrial estate. Every winter, snow and ice block the road into the factories. This is very special snow as snowploughs are allergic to it.

I watch as these businessmen try to make a living in their units, but their customers leave after fighting a losing battle to enter the estate.

We must get our priorities right: main roads have been open all week, but the snow arrived last Monday and it is now Friday. Men who should be at work are digging out their cars as I write.

To start your own business up here, you must first purchase a shovel. - I Littlejohns, Tow Law.

REGIONAL GOVT

IT MAY be true that referendums are intrinsically flawed (HAS, Mar 2), but in ours the Yes campaign failed to illustrate the complex of existing un-elected bodies.

Regional politicos who ought to have taken a higher profile in mustering electioneering expertise for the Yes campaign were obviously pleased to leave it to naive enthusiasts and local celebrities to lose.

Since World War Two, our cities, boroughs and districts have sensibly recognised that we have special urban and rural problems in the North-East. A succession of co-ordinating bodies have been set up.

If Conservatives want a directly elected element in police management it could be incorporated. Rationalising local government has not traditionally required a referendum. - Eric Shuttleworth, Darlington.

THE regional assembly should certainly not exist (Echo, Feb 24). The people of the North-East voted overwhelmingly against such an assembly. To now say that they voted against an elected assembly, not an unelected one, highlights the duplicity of the Government's thinking.

Will similar tactics be used in the referendum on the EU constitution?

We can only watch and wait. At least we have been alerted in the matter of the regional assembly as to the kind of dictatorial games that can be played. - EA Moralee, Billingham.

ROYAL WEDDING

I WAS enraged by Ann Taylor (HAS, Feb 28) demonising Diana.

Diana captured the hearts of our nation, something all the other royals put together have failed to do, with the possible exception of the Queen.

Diana only took other lovers after her marriage was on the rocks.

Her marriage to Charles broke down because of his terribly cruel treatment of her.

Ann Taylor used the words "vain, selfish, manipulative and immoral" - these words describe Charles to perfection.

The truth is Diana will be loved in death as Charles and Camilla are disliked in life. - Hugh Pender, Darlington.

I HOPE all those who are gleefully looking forward to Prince Charles' second marriage aren't among those who shed tears for Diana.

Rules are gradually being bent so he can do exactly what he wants. No doubt they will be bent further if he accepts the role of king so that Mrs Parker-Bowles becomes queen.

He should do the decent thing and ride off into the sunset with Mrs Parker-Bowles, perhaps settling in France as his great uncle did.

If Diana was as your vitriolic letters suggest (which I don't accept), then she acquired these traits from her husband. As for her being mentally unstable, this was obviously a nervous breakdown brought on by Charles' treatment of her. His affair with Camilla appears to have been going on for many years, even before he married Diana.

As for Princess Diana's affairs, who can blame her for looking for love and affection when she wasn't getting any from her husband? - M Elliott, Darlington.

TAXING TIMES

I HOPE A McKimm of Crook suffers no further loss of memory since he awoke from his 14 year coma (HAS, Mar 1).

Because that is when the poll tax was abandoned.

In retrospect, if A McKimm were to study the poll tax, he may have been much happier had it continued, instead of the current council tax which was started by Michael Heseltine. - S Johnson, Darlington.

SUPERMARKETS

SUPERMARKETS are putting cost-cutting before customer convenience. I refer to the lately-introduced practice of stocking up shelves during shopping hours.

It is surprising how often the aisle is blocked or hazardous for moving trolleys.

A friend was recently run into by a trolley pusher who could not see over the top of her stack of goods, and I have had shouted at me: "Mind yer back."

Where has courtesy to the customer gone? - Margaret Greenhow, Darlington.