LOOTING - IT is amazing to see looters on TV in Iraq where thieves could get their hands chopped off for stealing. So why not take a leaf out of the British law?

A lonely, single man, Tony Martin, was in his own house when a gang of well-known criminals with a long history of crime breaks in. To defend his property and possibly his own life, he shoots one of the gang.

The result is that he is now in jail for a long sentence.

This should improve the situation in Baghdad. - E Reynolds, Wheatley Hill.

CHILDREN

A READER questions the right of parents to bring up their children without access to radio and television, newspapers and computers.

I think of all the extra time available to such children, usually of good homes and provided with good education.

These children have the advantage of a sheltered upbringing, only introduced to the 'real world' at appropriate stages.

The truth of the real world is so very often hidden and overwhelmed on television with never-ending fiction put in front of young impressionable minds.

Television is the tried and tested tool for mass brain washing and indoctrination.

When dealing with Plymouth Brethren in the past I was impressed by their clear understanding of the outside world. - T Cockeram, Barwick-in-Elmet.

PETER MULLEN

IN his article 'Why we don't need these barbarians' (Echo, Mar 25), Peter Mullen presents a muddle of two separate issues, namely teenage illiteracy and Iraq. Who is responsible for the former?

Who but their elders and betters who let youth unemployment soar under Margaret Thatcher and who failed in their responsibility to provide worthwhile jobs in a just social framework, to motivate our students.

Peter does appear to have been unlucky in his experience. He may have read the Church Times (Mar 28) which reports the Kendal demo by hundreds of school students in glowing terms. They had their instructions: be polite, do as they ask, don't swear, don't struggle. Courteously they had prepared a banner. 'Please accept traffic delays, no war'. Their 16-year-old spokesman gave us ten reasons why bombing Iraq is wrong. I don't think any adult has come up with a better list.

So I feel sorry for Peter Mullen in the somewhat Godless city called London. Should he not retire to his beloved Dales? Did not the Psalmist write like a good Northerner? - Promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west; nor yet from the south (Ps 75. 7). - Frank McManus, Todmorden.

MILITARY FUNERAL

IN the picture (Echo, Apr 12) of the funeral of Captain Philip Guy I was shocked at the number of men still wearing their caps as the funeral hearse was passing.

I hope these people recognise themselves and hang their heads in shame at this lack of respect and good manners. - L Lewis, Coundon, Bishop Auckland.

Darlington

IT would appear to me that I must be living in a different town to your correspondent E Clegg (HAS, Mar 3) and Councillor Williams, who seem to think that there has been an improvement in the cleanliness of the town.

All they need do is to take a trip down any thoroughfare and take note of the endless stream of black plastic bags outside every home.

Keep the streets tidy - it's a joke. We are not encouraged to keep the place clean, instead we are told that we must place all our refuse at the kerbside. This was to save money on collection as there was a shortage in the coffers.

If there is such a shortage then how can the town suddenly find half a million pounds to finance consultants to undertake a study on how to make the town centre pedestrian only?

Surely all the brainpower employed in the town hall can work out a simple problem as to how the town centre can be made traffic free, after all we are half way there now due to the prices charged for parking? - J Rishworth, Darlington.

WAR AGAINST IRAQ

NOW that the utter vileness of Saddam and his regime is beyond dispute and whatever lame excuse there ever was for public and self-deception is no more, I propose an unconditional vote of thanks to George Bush and Tony Blair for ridding the world of one of the most obscene tyrannies of modern times.

What chance is there, I wonder, of an apology from their noisiest critics, like those responsible for the infantile drivel that has been such a recurrent feature of Hear All Sides?

None, I reckon - such people have their heads buried far too deeply in the sands of their own ignorant prejudice and self-importance for them to understand, let alone care about, the aspirations and concerns of real people. - T Kelly, Crook.