ENGLISH HISTORY: TONY Kelly (HAS, Nov 11) says that white immigrants in previous centuries "showed a willingness to assimilate", implying that more recent migrants from the West Indies, Asia, etc do not.

There are problems with lack of communication and interaction between cultures, but this is the consequence of racism.

If someone is recruited to work in his "mother country" but then find himself subjected to discrimination, prejudice and abuse because of his skin colour, is it surprising that he will seek the company of his fellow countrymen?

There is, however, a tendency in overwhelmingly white areas to exaggerate the problem and imagine conflicts and ghettos where none exist.

As I travelled through London recently, my car broke down and I took it for repair in Brixton. The atmosphere in the garage was very friendly, and the mechanics, black and white, obviously got on very well together. As I waited in a nearby park, I saw black and white kids playing happily together while their parents chatted, including some families with one black parent and one white. Black and white can, and generally do, live in harmony. - Pete Winstanley, Durham.

WHEN Tony Kelly refers to English as "the oldest of the Germanic tongues, spoken in its ancestral form by all the North German tribes who settled here" (HAS, Nov 11), I suspect he is confusing modern English with Old English, which was indeed Germanic.

It was also a completely different language to modern English.

If you want to learn Old English, you'd have to put in at least as much effort as you would to learn, for example, modern German.

As for his assertion that (modern) English is not a "hybrid language", that's a bit rich coming from someone who uses the word 'heterogeneous' in his letter.

I'm not au fait with Mr Kelly's daily modus operendi, nor am I clairvoyant, but I find it difficult to believe that he doesn't use words of hybrid origin... even if its just to moan about what's on television. - Kevin O'Beirne, Sunderland.

GHOST SHIPS

PETER Mandelson suggests that those involved in protesting against the ghost ships are nothing more than 'scaremongers'.

The so called 'Master of Spin' appears to be using his dark arts to discredit Friends of the Earth and local environmentalists.

The facts speak for themselves. There is to be a inquiry as to the awarding of this contract to Able UK from MARAD by the American government. The EU Commissioner for the Environment has announced a inquiry. There have been calls for a full public inquiry on this issue in the House of Commons. A number of Hartlepool councillors have asked for a public inquiry into this farce. There are to be two judicial reviews on this issue.

The calls for both inquiry and judicial review are because of concerns for the environment and the perceived incompetence of a number of government agencies both sides of the pond.

If these ships are of no threat to the environment of this town, why have requests for them to be harboured at other British ports en-route all been refused?

Make no bones about it, this contract is about America disposing of its toxic waste in Hartlepool. There will be only one winner and that will be Able UK which stands to make a massive profit and will probably secure funding from 'our money' to build a multi-million pound dry dock gate.

We will be left with America's toxic waste in Seaton Carew. - Geoff Lilley, Hartlepool.

HOW interesting it was to see Ray Mallon (below) pontificating about how marvellous it would be for the ghost ships to be dismantled on the Tees.

What he failed to mention was the fundamental bit about where and how the toxic waste was going to be stored.

So, until such times as he can promise suitable sites in the heartlands of the likes of Linthorpe, Hemlington and Beechwood, might I suggest that he steers well clear of our beloved town's politics as he has already shown - with his defection to Middlesbrough. - Derek W Hall, Hartlepool.

CONSERVATIVE PARTY

STUART Hill refers to Michael Howard (HAS, Nov 8) as following the "extremism of Margaret Thatcher".

Surely Mr Hill must have noticed that Mrs Thatcher left office nearly 15 years ago!

Twenty years ago, while Michael Howard, Mrs Thatcher and the Conservative Party were busy defending the country, Tony Blair and large sections of the Labour Party were prancing around Trafalgar Square with their friends from CND shouting "Ban the Bomb".

The same Mr Blair is now asking the RAF to drop bombs across large parts of the Middle East.

Perhaps, Michael Howard, like Tony Blair, has mellowed with the years. Let's wait and see, shall we? - William Wearmouth, Eastgate.

ENERGY

IF Tony Blair is so keen on reducing fuel consumption to avert global warming, why hasn't he had solar panels fitted to the roof of No 10 or Chequers? There's only one word for him - flawed. - Aled Jones, Bridlington.

THE BIBLE

I WAS amazed to read Tony Kelly's absurd comments (HAS, Nov 10) about Harry Mead's article.

Hundreds of thousands of African people were captured and shipped to America to work in the plantations. The plantation owners were obviously Christians who found no incongruity between their beliefs and owning black slaves. The founding fathers such as Thomas Jefferson, Adams, Hancock, and Washington would own slaves as the normal thing to do for their times.

Wilberforce and other "seriously committed Christians" fought against slavery but they were lone voices, without the backing of the Church authorities of the time. Mr Kelly should really read his history and not believe that today's beliefs applied equally in times past.

It is so strange that whenever the Bible is quoted to be at variance with what is believed, the response is always to suggest that it is taken out of context or is not to be taken at face value, never to admit that parts of the Bible, written at different times and by different people, may show different ideas of what is right and wrong. - Eric Gendle, Nunthorpe.