08/04/04

We can gather how he defines democracy by his allusion to a People's Parliament.

Mr Ashby yet again defends the EU and all its works via the Orwellian language of double speak.

All EU laws are made by the European Commission, a body totally unelected and unaccountable. The Parliament merely represents a fig leaf of democracy.

I challenge Mr Ashby to name one legislative demand of the Commission that the Parliament has not approved.

The EU executive (European Commission) is accountable to no electorate yet the laws, directives and regulations they issue have to be accepted by our Parliament without scrutiny or debate and take primacy over English law. That is not democracy, that is dictatorship.

Isolationist is used as an epithet to describe those of us who wish Britain to trade freely with the world.

Mr Ashby waxes lyrical over the moribund, protectionist, high tax, over-regulated economies of the eurozone while decrying the successful, flexible and low tax economy of the UK.

I would merely point out that there are 4.8 million (and growing) German unemployed people who are testimony to the merits of the system he recommends we adopt.

If we require democracy, prosperity and true accountability it will not be found in the EU. The sooner we are rid of our connection with this epitome of corruption the better. - Dave Pascoe, Press Secretary, UK Independence Party, Hartlepool Branch.

COMMUNITY POLICING

WHEN reviewing public safety it is hoped that Sedgefield Borough Council gives priority to value for money.

This may mean rising above politics and addressing the concerns and dissatisfaction of the people they represent.

In 1993, the community force was formed as an experiment to supply a uniformed visible presence on our streets, unfortunately with no power of arrest.

Last year the ratepayer spent half a million pounds to support the ten members of the force, CCTV surveillance and the very acceptable Carelink. The cost of building maintenance is in addition to this sum.

The latest council newsletter also admits to the CF's lack of visibility, although they are on hand every hour of the week.

Special constables backed by the police are a much better option to maintain law and order. They have the same powers as police officers and to date do not receive a wage and hence are not a burden on the community.

Despite cost cuts, the council tax increase is more than twice the rate of inflation. Continuing to pay for a service which can be done far more effectively by the police and special constables does not make sense. - B Gobin, Spennymoor.

COUNCIL TAX

THE leader of the Conservative Group on Stockton Council complained in your letters column that Liberal Democrats had not supported them in budget proposals to reduce the council tax by a small amount.

Liberal Democrats could not in good conscience support a move to look popular by trying to reduce council tax when we know there was a funding shortage in social services in Stockton.

At Stockton Council's meeting the Tories complained that there was a shortfall in social services funding. - Suzanne Fletcher, Leader, Liberal Democrat Group, Stockton Council.

TUITION FEES

I FULLY support your editorial (Echo, Apr 1) in favour of free access to higher education.

I have just had superb NHS medical treatment. Only a cynical government would reduce our doctors to a lifetime of debt for gaining the qualifications to keep us alive.

School leavers should be warned of the stressful dangers which they now face if they choose a university career.

Student loans are really double taxation for life. Debts already force many individuals into the hands of loan-sharks and are a cause of divorce, suicide etc. Better no university education at all than risking such financial misery, surely.

All subjects are fascinating, especially when studied intensively and in depth. This is why university courses last for three or fours years with lengthy vacations. But if students are forced into vacation jobs or term-time casual jobs at night, they soon begin to hate their subject as just another chore to be got through any old how. The UK's standards of research and scholarship are in great danger from such half-baked and shallow academic results.- E Turnbull, Gosforth.

RECYCLING

RECYCLING of paper, metal and glass is to be applauded and Easington Council has issued plastic containers for householders to put these items in.

Firstly, the containers seem too large if full of paper for the elderly persons to carry out for collection.

Secondly, it states that paper should be on the bottom and metal and glass on the top to prevent the paper blowing away in the wind, so will rows of containers with glass on the top be a target for the vandals who seem to like breaking glass bottles and jars in the streets, resulting in smashed glass all around the road? - E Reynolds, Wheatley Hill.

INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

SINCE Bob Geldof's initiative during the Ethiopian famine of 1985, we have been constantly bombarded with pleas to fund food and medical aid to the so-called developing world.

Mostly, we duly paid up, but I now think we were daft to do so.

We should first asked ourselves: why are these countries with their super-abundant natural resources, no longer able to feed themselves?

The answer lies, I think, in their acquisition during the post-colonial era of vehemently anti-Western Marxist-Lennist governments, with their grandiose programmes of mass industrialisation, militarisation and enforced collectivisation of agriculture.

Under pressure of these crack-brained, pernicious schemes the economies and much of the natural environment of these countries disintegrated.

Now, after decades of calling us worse than dirt, they expect us to bail them out and I don't think we should.

I think next time relief charities come round collecting, instead of dipping our hands into our pockets we should ask them to pass on the following message: you have more than adequate means to feed your poor. If you can't do so that's your problem, not ours. - T Kelly, Crook.