22/01/05

Why should our society be less open, just because a few pampered royal sycophants may be unseated? How Britain has been tied into a system which is inherently unaccountable, I don't know.

We have a fundamental right to decide who struts the world stage as this country's "top dog".

This royal pantomine devalues our social culture and makes us merely chattels. It is the 21st century now, but we are prisoners of the past. - Aled Jones, Bridlington.

IMMIGRATION

NO-one knows (even roughly) how many people are entering this country illegally, which must mean that Fred Atkinson's guess (HAS, Jan 4) is as good as anybody's.

What is certain is that the figure is if no great concern to government, where there is a firm belief that every immigrant is a potential taxpayer and subscriber to Britain's future prosperity.

This explains the lack of any widespread effort to track down those who have joined us illegally, and why most unsuccessful applicants for asylum are still here.

Over most of the years since the war, the Home Office has contrived to keep the whole issue out of the public eye, by publishing understated figures, and claiming that immigration was under adequate control.

With overpopulation now evident, public recognition is at last dawning that control was almost entirely absent, and endless population growth within given borders can only lead to a decline in the quality of life for all.

Increasing congestion on roads and in car parks is only the start of it. Housing, and the dwindling supply of building land is following behind. Green belt, sports areas and recreational land are under attack.

Immigration and population must surely be major issues in the forthcoming General Election. - Bob Jarratt, Caldwell.

HEALTHY EATING

GENERALLY speaking, I am in sympathy with The Northern Echo's campaigns, and applaud its contribution to public education. For example, the coverage you have given to initiatives aimed at improving coronary health following the tragic death of one of your staff whilst awaiting heart surgery.

I am, therefore, at a loss to understand how you can justify encouraging people to eat high-calorie foods containing high levels of fat and salt, all widely acknowledged as contributing to heart disease.

Granted, you do not print articles extolling the virtues of these foods. However, you do give away vouchers to be exchanged for them, in the shape of sausage rolls, at certain local bakeries.

The phrase "blatant hypocrisy" springs to mind. - Helen Jeffery, Hunwick.

OPERA

OPERA has a wonderful combination of voice, art, dance and theatre, all rolled into one production.

The myth that opera is a medium only for the well-educated is directly caused by a lack of exposure to the art. The fact that opera is still an important part of our cultural life speaks for itself.

The ability for us to remove ourselves from the realities of our 21st century lives, escape to worlds seemingly far away, and experience them through the music, theatre, dance and visual splendour of opera, is truly magical. - Frederick Stehr, Darlington.

DRINKING HOURS

DO not fear, 'binge drinking' is here to stay. The drinks industry is unlikely to relinquish its astronomical profits for the sake of the good of society and the introduction of 24-hours' licensing will solve nothing.

When almost everybody who has first-hand knowledge of the mayhem on our streets is challenging the wisdom of the proposals and being ignored, we should smell a rat.

It is sheer lunacy to offer greater access to alcohol when it is the excessive consumption of alcohol that is the problem. Drunks, hell-bent on violence and confrontation, will not 'stagger' their troublemaking to accommodate the police.

Nor can we rely on licensees to refuse to serve drunken customers. They would have to refuse 75 per cent of their clientele in the run-up to closing time.

There should be a total ban on new applications for pubs and clubs, and premises where frequent trouble is occurring should be permanently shut down.

A final thought. Instead of introducing ID cards, how about rationing alcohol and issuing ration books to drinkers? No coupon, no drink. Sorry. - D Brearley, Middlesbrough.

RELIGION

BISHOP Tom Wright (Echo, Dec 24) tries to make a virtue of necessity by saying that within 60 years there were two different nativity traditions. He doesn't go on to tell us they are completely incompatible and contradictory and few modern theologians other than Bishop Tom believe a word of them.

At least the medieval writer Bocaccio was a bit more sceptical with his hilarious story of the unscrupulous friar who would show his gullible congregation a brightly coloured parrot's feather, claiming it had dropped from the wings of the Angel Gabriel at the Annunciation.

Bishop Tom's problem is not the silly Da Vinci code or any other conspiracy nonsense but the evidence of the very earliest Christians themselves, whose writings comprise more than half the New Testament. None of them seem to know anything at all about the Gospels' version of Jesus's life: no Star, no Joseph and Mary; no Nazareth or Galilee, no baptism by John, no disciples like Peter etc, no teachings, no travels, no healings - or even a single miracle. Not even that he was supposedly crucified by Pilate in Jerusalem.

If the very early Christians knew nothing of these things, what basis do we have for believing that Jesus ever even existed? - David H Lewis, Hervey Bay, Australia.

AID APPEALS

MILLIONS of pounds have been willingly donated by the people of this country to the victims of the tsunami disaster in Asia. This generosity, of course, is wonderful.

The same people again give millions to Africa to help to ward off possible mass starvation, which appears to come around every few years.

It is at this point that I start to feel a little cynical. I watch the TV showing these Africans with four or five very young children clinging to their mothers, flies crawling all over them and living in squalor, and I realise that very similar pictures were shown in previous appeals.

Could somebody please let me know what has happened to the previous tens of millions collected because I can't see any improvement - and why won't these people practise birth control?

As far as the tsunami appeal goes, I would suggest that a lot of businesses are making a lot of money out of the generosity of the British people, but perhaps this time we will see where it has been spent. - D Harrison, Darlington.