I AGREE with everything George Reynolds said (Echo, Aug 8) about the state of football, players and their wages.

Everybody was against him when he took over the club and divulged what was being paid to certain players.

Now just take a look at the Premier League bosses taking notice of George Reynolds' advice, by asking David Beckham, Michael Owen and the rest of the players to declare their wages.

You have got it right, George, and you have put your money where your mouth is. Good luck for the coming season. - Henry Dinsdale, Darlington.

HAD there been more chairmen like George Reynolds over the past number of years, football might not have been in the unholy mess that it is in today.

Where's the sense in small clubs incurring huge debts, mainly through paying over-inflated wages, when most weeks their stadia are three-parts empty. He rightly says you cannot rely on handouts for ever.

The late Bill Shankly maintained that football was not just a matter of life and death, it was much more important than that. I don't see how it can be if you happen to have mortgaged the ground you play on quite some time ago. - Douglas Punchard, Kirkbymoorside.

METRIC MARTYRS

THE term 'Metric Martyrs' is a misnomer and implies the opposite to what is intended.

A martyr has suffered and died for a good cause. Those fighting against compulsory metrication are, if the word martyr is to be used vaguely correctly for effect, in fact Imperial Martyrs.

Sunderland greengrocer Steve Thoburn and his fellow traders should perhaps, on reflection, be renamed 'Imperial Defenders'. He was not, as is often stated, prosecuted for selling a pound of bananas but for using imperial-only scales, defiantly ignoring English Law inspired by the EU. Mr Thoburn and his colleagues are now pursuing the matter in the European Court of Human Rights at Strasbourg. I hope this will not be a fruitless task. - Peter Troy, Maunby, Thirsk.

PETER REID

OBVIOUSLY not content at seeing photographs of Peter Reid all over the press covered in drink last week, or of a moron running onto the pitch in a friendly in Antwerp to give him abuse, the so-called Sunderland supporters' magazine, A Love Supreme, has brought out some T-shirts depicting Sunderland's manager as a monkey.

Irrespective of one's opinion of Reid as a manager, should he have to put up with this type of portrayal by people who seem to do nothing but slag him off at every given opportunity these days?

It is a slur on all proper Sunderland fans and just smacks of opportunism at any cost. - D Wray, South Shields.

ANIMAL WELFARE

JOHN Dean's article (Echo, Aug 5) raises some interesting, and important, points regarding the culling of predators.

The animal rights' campaigners have done much to raise public awareness of unnecessary cruelty, but it must be remembered that nature perpetuates itself through the predations of one species upon another.

The exception to this is the fox: with no natural predator to control him, this is left to humans.

Those who have seen wantonly killed new-born lamb carcasses, or hens and ducks strewn around a farmyard, will know that the fox is no cuddly Basil Brush in need of protection.

It has been reported that, during the layoff of hunting during the foot-and-mouth outbreak, the slaughter of lambs increased dramatically.

Those who consider that nature is not cruel should consider the actions of a cat playing mercilessly with a mouse before destroying it.

Why, therefore, is the Government determined to stop hunting with dogs when it was admitted in the Burns Report that hunting was the least cruel and most natural way of culling foxes?

Is it to appease the urban majority of Labour MPs who have little experience of rural issues, and even less inclination to face facts?

All countrymen ask for, whether farm workers, gamekeepers or huntsmen, is recognition that their views should have equal weight, and that, without their contribution, the countryside would not exist as it does today for all to enjoy.

Let Parliament get on with the duties for which it was elected, and let us get on with our lives. - Major W K Trotter, Darlington.

TONY BLAIR

CAN I comment on the recent story relating to a bestowed honour by the town council of Sedgefield, announced by the mayor, but presented to the media by the esteemed leader of council, that Tony Blair was made honorary burgess of the town.

Does anyone actually believe that Mr Blair fulfills the said requirements? Would he tell Sedgefield residents what significant contribution to the community Mr Blair has made, please?

The only flock of sheep that this burgess could set on the green would be the fawning flock of political activists that abound in the area.

Town councils used to be led in a non-political arena by an elected mayor, deputy mayor and the town clerk, until the Labour Party imposed upon it the political machine. - C Brian Hunter, Sedgefield.