RIO FERDINAND: EVERY time I hear about how unfairly Rio Ferdinand has been dealt with, my hackles rise.

If Manchester United and the players' union are upset at the FA, who I hope will not back off from doing the right thing, I have a suggestion.

The club should keep a diary of his appointments and send him reminders every few hours, or send a car with a companion to make sure he gets there.

As far as the other England players are concerned, the ones who are not fully committed to their country should be replaced. - John Scott, Billingham.

RIO Ferdinand should not have been exposed to the "media feeding frenzy" until all sides of the matter had been put to him, considered and defended.

He has little chance of emerging from this fracas untarnished now. This is obviously unfair to him, and any of the other players exposed to this kind of "press justice" would justifiably feel under threat. - Harry Watson, Darlington.

SEX EDUCATION

PETER Mullen (Echo, Sept 30) poses the question: "Can we have too much sex education?"

The answer is no. Because, for the population of the world to sustain itself, the different sexes have to be educated.

The problem arises when the different age groups decide on their own initiative what is best for other groups, although the circumstances of each group may be totally opposed.

How can a person teaching today, who in their adolescent years gyrated and applauded popular rock stars at concerts, begin to understand the feelings and thinking of modern students, who see the same rock stars as ageing old men having their last tour before retirement?

Their thinking has been determined and moulded in a different environment.

Sex education is taught and portrayed in various ways by many people, but can be listed under two headings: re-creational and recreational, with both words containing the word creation.

The word creation implies there is a creator in our Judaic-Christian society. The words creator and creation infuse our thinking on re-creational sex with order, discipline, obligation and responsibility.

The attitude to recreational sex presupposes sexual activity as an amusing pastime where the strong dominate the weak with corruption, abusing innocence, resulting in degradation, humiliation, frustration and violence.

The purpose of education is to re-create students who should be more mature at the end of each school day. If the meaning of words is not being taught, will students of either sex receive a proper education? - T Conlon, Spennymoor.

IRAQ

ROBIN Cook has shown his true colours by attempting to stab the Prime Minister in the back over the Iraqi war.

Mr Cook has no credibility at all. Whatever the rights or wrongs of the well-publicised reasons for going to war with Iraq, one fact overrides all others: a deranged demented maniac has been removed from power and that can only be for the benefit of mankind. - J Bell, Crook.

SHOPPING

THE prospect of another shopping precinct in Darlington town centre to compete with the out-of-town shopping is to be welcomed.

However, there are concerns with the plans, particularly with regard to the car parking and traffic proposals.

Siting a multi-story car park adjacent to a health centre and flats hardly seems appropriate.

The traffic proposals also need further consideration. Access to the car park will be from the ring road and it is proposed to replace the Northgate roundabout and underpasses with traffic lights, the construction of which will cause chaos.

It would seem more sensible to put all the car parking on top of the new centre with access from the ring road and Bondgate.

Also, the Northgate roundabout could be retained with occasional traffic lights to smooth traffic flow at peak periods. - Brian Fiske, Darlington Liberal Democrats.

ASYLUM SEEKERS

T ATKIN (HAS, Oct 8) says most asylum seekers are found to be bogus - they aren't.

Fifty per cent plus are allowed to stay, and many that aren't are returned to extremely dangerous situations.

And I can assure you that the people-smugglers are not so sophisticated to be able to 'con' the immigration system.

The New Labour Government is hard at work doing as much as it can get away with in a civilised society to stop people arriving and refusing to support destitute people. It deported over 65,000 people last year.

Mr Atkin rants on about multi-culturalism "dividing England into factions and is flawed and dangerous".

This suggests that he wants to see a racially pure "England". Would he like to explain exactly how he would achieve this. Who are the 'English' anyway?

They certainly aren't Scots or Welsh. And should my father be deported as he came from the Ukraine after the Second World War? And what about his children and grandchildren? They aren't pure 'English'. Should they be got rid of too?

As Middlesbrough Mayor Ray Mallon said recently at the launch of Teesside Against the BNP, Teesside didn't exist before 150 years ago and was built by immigrants from all corners of the world.

Celebrating our differences leads to social harmony. - Pete Widlinski, North-East Coalition For Asylum Rights.