05/03/05

Witness Government speed on tsunami, Palestine, domestic economy, G8 presidency, no Tory boom/bust, maximum employment. Everyone in with more than a chance. Law and order efforts, anti-smoking campaigns, hit the thugs, worldwide envy of our fairness, generosity and chances to the little man.

Come on you know-alls, sharpen your pens and have a go if you think you're hard enough. - Jon Barron, Darlington.

Bishop Auckland MP

IT HAS been said that a monkey in a suit standing as a Labour candidate will attract votes. But are monkeys in knickers not going a bit too far in Bishop Auckland?

There are many able women in Parliament representing all facets of society. They are there because they showed they were better than the male candidates.

If they could not compete with men in the elections, they certainly could not compete with them once in Parliament.

Men did not stop sailing round the world so that a woman could break the record, so why is it necessary for women politicians?

It is their own gender that the all-women candidates are letting down, as well as setting a dangerous precedent. They are not proving anything. - H Ballantyne, Newton Aycliffe.

THERE is no justice in an all-women shortlist for the Bishop Auckland constituency. It is flagrant discrimination against men. Selection should be on merit only. Such bigotry has no place in politics. - Anne Jones, Ferryhill.

BIG CATS

A PANTHER here, a big cat there, they see these cougars everywhere. But if they exist, can they be so elusive as to disappear without trace? Surely not, when the area with the most alleged sightings could be combed using sniffer dogs plus a marksman with a knockout drug pellet fun. Mystery solved. If there be such to solve. - GE Grieveson, Richmond.

SCANDALS

THE WORD "scandal" in your headline about the Sudan 1 food scare (Echo, Feb 24) is a misuse of English.

However, the report relegated to Page ten about the North-East assembly indeed tells of a scandal.

Aided by the media and professional Northerners shouting Home Rule, the referendum was a con, worthy of the doorstep conmen the Echo so frequently warns us about.

A scandal is the taxpayer helping to pay for what, in effect, is a club AGM, the Labour Party Conference, of MPs of dubious reputation being given high paid jobs in the EU Commission.

A scandal is MPs flying round the country campaigning for re-election at the tax payers' expense, knowing full well that when an election date is set their campaign expenses will be strictly controlled and have to be funded by their party.

I could go on.

The current food scare is a disgrace and a failure of standards control, but a scandal, no. - Graham Bull, Darlington.

LONDON

HERE we are again (British action on bird flu, Echo, Feb 24) with London being the focus of prompt Government action.

It is about time that politicians stop wandering around in a vacuum.

London may be the capital, but its importance and relevance to the rest of the country is solely in the minds of those who use it as an administrative base. - MC Johnson, Scorton.

HUNTING

TONY Blair, the listening Prime Minister, did not listen when tens of thousands of country people marched on London to fight for their way of life not to be changed by the Hunting Bill.

The time and money that has been spent on banning hunting is shameful. All it now means is Mr Fox is going to die a lot slower that when the hounds get hold of him.

Wake up Tony and get your priorities right. You spend a fortune to stop hunting, but send British soldiers to die without proper kit to save the MoD a few pounds. Has it been worth it? - K Heslop, Crook.

I DO not have any connections with either hunting or angling, but logically I feel that if hunting of foxes with dogs as a sport is banned because it is cruel then so should angling for fish with barbed hook since it must be equally as cruel.

So why are those people who are so much in favour of the hunting ban not clamouring now for a similar ban on angling? - J Routledge, Witton Gilbert.

I WAS stunned to see (Echo, Feb 28) Judge Michael Spencer approving of fox hunting with dogs.

In the past, cock fighting and bear baiting were regarded as entertainment and human lives counted for little.

Why should a pack of large dogs kill foxes or two large dogs tear hares to pieces?

I felt sick when cheers were raised as two large dogs caught a hare on TV at the Waterloo Cup. Why don't these professed countrymen kill foxes with guns as they do birds? Pity cruelty counts for entertainment. - J Gray, Bishop Auckland.

I READ with interest Mrs Smith's letter (HAS, Feb 24) in which she says council tax goes towards the police and in the next sentence she alludes that police attend football matches.

I would suggest that she asks Darlington Football Club what their policing bill is. Any sporting event expecting a crowd above a certain figure has to have a police presence and has to pay for it as well as ambulance cover.

Is she saying the animal rights people should pay towards the policing of their demonstrations against hunting? - Jim S Hamer, Darlington.

FASCISM

I WAS outraged to read about the BNP attempting to pose as a political party (HAS, Feb 28). Of course the BNP does not advocate mass murder - that would not give them the electoral legitimacy they desire.

However, fascism in 2005 does not come in a black shirt with a pencil moustache - it comes in a designer suit. It is not going to call openly for the extermination of the Jews and it will try to cultivate maximum respectability. Neither is it going to goosestep down your high street complete with swastika flag.

However we cannot be complacent about them as they exploit despair and social problems to further their sinister agenda.

In last July's BBC TV documentary called The Secret Agent, an undercover team revealed how the BNP's racist violence sparked riots in Bradford in July 2001 and this has resulted in the arrests of 15 BNP members, including the leader Nick Griffin.

I urge all readers to find out more about Unite Against Fascism at www.uaf.org.uk. - J Hall, Sunderland.

PARKING

I'M with the owners of Gallerina in Duke Street, Darlington (Echo, Feb 18).

I was appalled to one day drive into Darlington and find there is no longer any free car parking. It's just another hidden tax. Go in the Cornmill and see how many empty shops there are or take a walk around the new pay and display sites and see how empty they are. It is clear this council policy is costing business owners dearly.

I no longer go into Darlington town centre. I drive to where I can park for free.

And I urge the council to scrap this scheme before Darlington becomes a ghost town. - Graham Christer, Darlington.