UNEMPLOYMENT

HOW gallant of our PM to raise the age of school leavers to 19 years.

He must think we are all in need of further education, education, education, that we cannot see through his strategy of buying more votes.

The level of unemployment in this country can only be guessed at, caused by the uncontrolled influx of illegal immigrants, adding to our own figures to swell the tide caused by the number of factories closing down.

Mr Blair (above) is expert at papering over the cracks before they appear.

I have two documents in front of me which clearly state that there are 22,000 industrial jobs lost since this Government came to power, and also that 8,700 are hit by bankruptcy every three months.

The annual figures of companies going to the wall has gone up from 12,100 in 1987 to 16,300.

Mr Blair's shelf life has expired. - GW Bainbridge, United Kingdom Independence Party, Hartlepool.

BOXING TOURNAMENT

WELL said Mr Oxley (Echo, March 12). May I go a little deeper with my condemnation of the whole episode?

I will soon be 70 years old and have lived all my life in Darlington. I have witnessed time and time again the hard working majority of decent Darlington people who have to lose out to a minority of people who choose to offend.

Why, when we call this minority mindless, do they always come out on top? Darlington people have a right to enjoy sporting and social events in the town.

I note with disgust the hasty decision to once again come to the easy and weak conclusion that to ban boxing at the Dolphin Centre is a positive way forward.

It is a brainless attitude, allowing the mindless to win again. The hooligans in this instance were mostly out of town visitors - thus the people of Darlington lose again.

Before this disgraceful conclusion was reached, had any consultation taken place with the police and the security lads who keep order at the clubs and pubs in this town? I would think not.

Much will have been learned from this experience, answers can be found and methods can be used rather than capitulate to the hooligans. Darlington should be for the people to live in, not exist in. - PE Jones, Darlington.

FARMING

J HESLOP (HAS, Mar 15) claims modern farmers benefit the countryside, citing how they have planted 6,000 miles of new hedgerows.

He omits to mention their wanton destruction of 500,000 miles of ancient and therefore species-rich hedgerow, or their responsibility for transforming much of Eastern England into a poisoned and polluted green desert.

True, some small family farmers are caring and responsible and do an enormous amount of good. And, of course, it's precisely such genuine farmers who are systematically penalised by Defra.

It's the obscene cruelty of the factory farmers and the equally obscene greed of the agro-barons that win for their practitioners all the perks, all the subsidies.

Let there be no doubt that modern farming has more to answer for than any other anti-social activity. It's murder for wild birds and wild flowers; and given the liberal quantities of poisons we regularly ingest from its products, probably murder for us. - T Kelly, Crook.

MINERS' STRIKE

WHEN the miners were on strike in the 1970s, Britain had to endure power cuts. Coal stocks were low and the Government had been advised to reduce electricity generating output. This meant power cuts had to be introduced, resulting in the towns and villages being plunged into darkness for long periods.

The situation was so bad that Britain at the time was said to be ungovernable and television was obliged to close down at 10.30 each night.

None of these privations were in place during the miners' strike of 1984.

In that dispute the miners, as ever, rallied around their leader, but the public were left largely unaffected. - LD Wilson, Guisborough.

ELITE HALL

IT is with sadness that I learn our local council is closing our beloved Elite Hall and rumour has it that it is going to be demolished.

This is the place where a lot of us spent our happy teenage years and holds great sentiment. Memories mean more than money any day.

Maybe it isn't as viable as it was - times have changed. But it is the only hall with a stage and the best floor for dancing (holding up to 200) for miles around and always has been.

Crook is expanding. Every road approaching the town is a hive of building activity and with all these people coming to live in Crook the decision is made to close the Elite.

The new road opposite the football field, which is at present under construction, must be being built for the inhabitants of Crook to have quicker access out to other places for their entertainment and their money.

I attend different meetings, dances and concerts in the Elite, but when it closes my entertainment finishes. - Name and address supplied.

PENSIONERS

HOW wise of H Dinsdale (HAS, Mar 11) to realise that there are rich old age pensioners. There are even some who are millionaires.

Generally, those well-off OAPs have saved money during their working lives to supplement the derisory pension which most people pay for in taxes.

As women live longer than men, most OAPs are old ladies living alone and before the heating allowance several hundred died of hypothermia, preferring to have something to eat rather than pay the heating bill.

Regarding TV licences for the over-75s, it is difficult to understand why anyone should have to pay for that. It all goes to the BBC, so why not have TV sets which only show ITV, who provide the service free, and not be able to switch on to the BBC?

Stating that they all go to Benidorm for two or three weeks in winter is ridiculous. Benidorm is unable to take a small percentage of OAPs from this country without being overcrowded and it is doubtful if the savings on the heating bills would make it viable.

The rise in the old age pension this year is 2.8 per cent. How many councils are raising their rates by that or less? So guess where the pensioners' pay rise goes again this year.

Let's hope Mr Dinsdale is looking forward to his old age and free visits from the district nurses before he goes off to Benidorm for three weeks. - E Reynolds, Wheatley Hill.