01/04/03

He comes out with this ridiculous story about local authorities banning hot cross buns and pancakes and not a shred of evidence to back it up.

Telephone calls to the local authorities concerned, Tower Hamlets, Liverpool and York, would have given him the truth that these stories are phoney and put about by racist groups wanting to cause friction.

This bogus story is gone into in detail by Cristina Odone, a journalist writing in the current issue of the New Statesman magazine. Peter Mullen should be ashamed of himself for propagating such nonsense, but of course he won't be - strange fellow. - Willis Collinson, Durham City.

HOW can you in good conscience allow Peter Mullen to continue to write a column for your newspaper?

How much longer have we, the readers, to put up with his perverted opinions?

I wonder, was he a nicely dressed schoolboy, was he ever polite? If so the outlook is bleak for polite schoolboys if they turn out as irrational and as judgemental as he is. - Mrs A McKenna, Sedgefield.

WAR AGAINST IRAQ

I WONDER how Tony Blair justifies the extra £1.25bn that the Chancellor has set aside on top of the £1.75bn for this American shambles in Iraq.

It looks as though it is going to turn into another Vietnam with American politicians picking which targets to attack today and the British tax payer covering part of the cost.

When the public sector workers asked for higher wages, unlike the salary increase Members of Parliament paid themselves, they had to agree to what New Labour calls modernisation, changes in working practices and, in some cases, reducing the labour force.

Britain has been dragged by America into a crusade against what America calls international terrorism.

A lot of people round the world think that America should be looking after its own affairs and not telling the rest of the world how it wants them to live.

Does Mr Blair expect this war to go on for a long time so he is starting collecting money now? He is giving me £3 on my pension but, with the help of the council with rent and poll tax increases, is getting it back plus 70p as well. - Peter Dolan, Newton Aycliffe.

RAY Mallon (Echo, Mar 28) is right when he says that Tony Blair has met his doubters in head-on debate. He does have the courage of his convictions.

But Ray Mallon needs to recognise that other people too have the courage of their convictions. I cannot see how I can suddenly move from the view that the war is unnecessary and our Government is acting contrary to international law, to one of support or indifference. Moral convictions are not for negotiation.

The opinion polls before the war started indicated that the doubters did convince the majority. Many people are moved by a call for national solidarity now our forces are committed to military action.

Ray Mallon also adopts the line used by Lenin and Bush that you are either for us or against us. It is simply not true that anyone in the anti-war movement supports the Saddam regime and its mass slaughter of innocent civilians.

Whatever we think about other regimes there is no remit in international law to go in because we claim to be a liberation army.

I have no problem with Ray Mallon having his own views. But he must learn to respect the views of others who take a contrary view.

Whatever description he wants to give to the protest demonstrations, they are part of the freedom of assembly enjoyed in this country.

Ray Mallon has learned his hectoring tone in the police, and it was probably appropriate in dealing with the criminal fraternity.

I would advise him to try a little harder to be a civilian. I am a citizen of this country who has taken an active part in public affairs, and, if it interests him, has served in the army. I answer to no higher authority than my own conscience. - Geoffrey Bulmer, Billingham.

ORANGE PARADE

AS a Protestant I was appalled at the pictures (Echo, Mar 31) of the Orange Order march.

We do not need such provocation in England. We have seen enough of the bitterness such marches cause in Ireland.

Shame on the organisers and the participants, and even greater shame on the authorities for allowing such a parade itself.

We have enough conflict in the world. - Mrs S Harnby, Stockton.

HORSE RACING

MODERN racehorses are subjected to such extreme patterns of in-breeding, training and competition that their basic wellbeing is now under threat. These are the findings of a major new report by my organisation, Animal Aid, which is based on an analysis of the racing industry's own data, reports in scientific journals and commentaries by leading racing insiders.

Riding For A Fall: The genetic time bomb at the heart of racing, is published to coincide with the running of the Grand National. It shows that, while many more foals than in previous decades are produced for racing, a rapidly declining percentage are considered healthy and robust enough actually to make the grade. The failures are simply discarded.

Our report also shows that bone fractures - once rare amongst flat racers - are now common because of widespread in-breeding for speed; gastric ulcers and bleeding lungs are endemic; top breeding stallions are so over-worked that two of the three most coveted males both died in 2001 from suspected exhaustion, and breeding females are subjected to a punishing regime of artificial treatments to control and speed up reproduction. This systematic exploitation is cruel, extreme and unsustainable. - Andrew Tyler, Director, Animal Aid.