03/08/04

The whole article mentioned "parents" at least eight times, inferring the problem when couples divorce is the same for both parents.

However, the one sentence, "But they have resisted Tory demands to ensure fathers have equal access", tells me that the assumption of residency goes to mothers.

It makes sense to have a starting point of contact as 50-50 and then allow one or other of the parents to surrender that right if they could not handle it, as opposed to having to fight for it.

As only ten per cent of cases end up in court, does this not tell the powers that be that both parents in these cases want to be involved with every aspect of their children's lives?

I have first-hand experience of a 50-50 arrangement working wonderfully well for all concerned.

The reasons for one parent wanting more than 50-50 is not usually in the interests of the children, but in order to "take the other one to the cleaners" through the CSA. - Faith Ward, Trimdon Village.

HEALTH CARE

ANYONE who saw Panorama recently will have been horrified at the discrimination faced by people with Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia, who are being denied access to healthcare.

The care needs of people with Alzheimer's and other dementias are the result of a physical disease of the brain, for which there is currently no cure.

When someone cannot eat, wash, dress or use the toilet unaided because of a serious medical condition, the NHS should step in and provide support, as it does for people with other serious conditions.

These days, we know that dementia is not a "normal part of ageing", it is a medical condition like cancer or heart disease.

Families are still being forced to pay for care which should be available to them free. It must surely be one of the clearest examples of discrimination in the NHS.

The reports of the health service ombudsman have highlighted the appalling discrimination people with dementia and their carers face when applying for fully-funded NHS care.

For thousands of people, the process remains highly confusing and complex. It is a bureaucratic nightmare, yet the Government continues to claim that the system is easy to understand. This is despite repeated calls from the health ombudsman for clearer guidance.

I strongly support the Alzheimer's Society in its campaign for better access to NHS continuing care; care that for people in the later stages of dementia is vital for survival and quality of life. I urge others to do the same. - Jane Bizien, Pickering.

CYCLISTS

I AGREE with Bob Elliot's views of Darlington Borough Council's agreement to cyclists using the proposed £6.5m Pedestrian Heart area planned for Darlington town centre (Echo, July 28).

The Highway Code states cyclists "must not" cycle on pavements. How can Insp Chris Reeves, head of Darlington Police's anti-social behaviour unit, in considering the proposed pedestrian area, say: "I don't have a problem with sensible cyclists using the town centre"?

The Highway Code states it is against the law to cycle on pavements. Do the lawful rights of the "sensible" law-abiding pedestrians using the Pedestrian Heart area count for nothing? - John Wicks, Darlington.

DENTAL SERVICES

IT is beyond belief that members of the British Dental Association should appear to be exploiting the dearth of their numbers by imposing unwelcome charges on their patients, the majority of whom can ill afford to pay for the service.

To my horror, a number of professions have been commercialised by recent changes in society, and dentistry is no exception.

To say that levying charges will reduce the number of patients seen by dentists flies in the face of the basic tenets of commercial practices.

George Bernard Shaw shrewdly remarked that all professions are conspiracies against the laity - his point is well proven by the exploitative, profiteering and pseudo-altruistic moves being made by dentists and others.

How do we know that the majority of the 10,000 patients in the Cleveland Terrace Dental Practice are willingly accepting the change? Has there been an independent audit? If so, it would be interesting to see the figures. - Abdul Jaleel, Darlington.

INTERNATIONAL AID

WHY do people want us to come to the aid of the starving inhabitants of Sudan? We have ploughed billions of pounds into Africa, and continued to aid its countries hit by famine.

It's time that the Labour Government does something for the people of Great Britain instead .

Our homeless are more or less left to fend for themselves, while many of our pensioners live in poverty. Tony Blair must remember that he was elected to serve the United Kingdom and its people, and not some other country in Africa or any other part of the world.

I would personally like to see all of our Third World debt repaid by these countries, so that we can have billions more to spend on our own issues, which include our poverty-stricken pensioners and the poor families who have lost their jobs and find it hard to survive since Labour came in to power. - Christopher Wardell, Darlington.

EUROPE

PETER Mandelson has stressed the benefits that Hartlepool and the North-East will derive from the expanded EU free trade area. This is a myth.

The EU is most emphatically not a free trade area. Technically, the EU - as was the EEC before it - is a customs union.

Moreover, this is not an arcane, technical distinction. A free trade area either eliminates or agrees standard levies and tariffs between members, but each member is free to make its own arrangements with third countries. The customs union shares the characteristic of common or zero tariffs between members but - and here is the important distinction - it has a common tariff structure with third countries, the proceeds being paid into a central fund.

Over the years, therefore, behind the protectionist barrier of a common external tariffs, the "Common Market" has also built up a web of inter-relating standards which have also served to inhibit trade with third countries.

The EU has a common regulation-bound system based on the very antithesis of free trade, designed not primarily to promote trade but to protect member states from it, and designed to assist in the process of building a United States of Europe. - PA Troy, Chairman, Sedgefield Branch, UK Independence Party.