Hear All Sides: Albert Dryden

I think the only people suffering from paranoia are the aforementioned. Rehashing another exclusive about Albert Dryden is not news.

I know Albert Dryden and have done for a number of years. He telephones me and corresponds with me regularly and I have visited him on many occasions at the various prisons he has been in.

Albert's friends, who know the real Albert, know he is not the raving lunatic you are making him out to be.

It is my opinion you are suffering from sour grapes because Albert would not agree to you interviewing him. - E Suthern, Sedgefield.

HOUSE OF LORDS

WHO actually rules this democratic country of ours? The Queen is head of state, but has no powers. So it must be the elected House of Commons? Well, it has just voted on something about fox hunting which few people care about one way or another, but now a so-called Upper House disagrees.

So how does one become a Lord and how do they have power, since they are unelected, to change the elected laws?

How many other democracies have lords to overturn the elected rulers.

America has two chambers, but the Senate is always elected.

The so-called Upper House here seems partly the whim of the elected Prime Minister whose office can be changed when another election is called. So how does the democratic voter have a say?

In fact, voters have no say, so is it not time to have a real democratic government and have our upper chamber responsible to the ordinary voter even if they are called lords, gods or whatever? - E Reynolds, Wheatley Hill.

EDUCATION

TWO critics of Emmanuel College, Peter Winstanley and Eric Gendle (HAS, Mar 27) indulge in a little humour at the expense of creationists - like the crack at the end of the former's letter about the dinosaur.

Well excuse me, but the dinosaur is more discreditable to atheists than to believers.

A coinage of the scientific establishment, all of them at the time committed atheists, it means 'terrible lizard' and expresses what was still the official line in biology until very recently, that the creatures were over-sized reptiles that went up an evolutionary blind alley by concentrating on bulk rather than brain size.

That view is now recognised as rubbish - only don't hold your breath if you expect an apology from the scientific establishment.

In fact, it's the kind of rubbish, like Darwin's Theory of Evolution, that does more violence to the facts of Earth history than does the account in Genesis - if the latter is read properly. - Tony Kelly, Crook.

COUNCIL ELECTIONS

THE recent Liberal Party victories (Shildon and Middlestone Moor) are a cause for concern.

The Liberals seem to argue their case on the recent rise in council tax, saying that they will fight to reduce this level of council tax rise.

Now, to my mind, you don't need a degree in either economics or politics to realise that their figures do not add up.

The biggest rise was for the police, at a time when the majority of our people are concerned about crime and the fear of crime as a blight on modern life.

I have experience of the Liberal Party running a council with all the cuts in order to reduce tax, but at what price?

My dad is now 90 years of age and living in a borough of Manchester. Yet, when the Liberal Party took control, in order to reduce council tax they reduced the police, leaving my dad vulnerable. He was burgled while he was still in the house.

Last year, although still living in a warden-controlled and carelink property, he pulled a wardrobe over, trapping him. No call was made to his home and he was not found for 16 hours, still lying under that wardrobe.

The aim of this is to stimulate the debate on council tax rises and not to attack the Liberal Party or individual councillors.

I am a socialist and I believe in two issues: to preserve jobs and protect the services that the council offers. - Vince Crosby, Newton Aycliffe.

CHARITY SWIM

OVER the last few years, readers have given my charity swim challenges tremendous support and I am hoping they will once again take up the challenge by supporting the 2002 National Mile Swim Challenge in May.

This year's main beneficiary will be ChildLine, the UK's free, 24-hour helpline for children in trouble or danger. ChildLine's trained volunteer counsellors comfort, advise and protect children and young people. Lack of funds means that lines can be busy, so children may have to dial several times before they get through.

The National Mile Swim Challenge is very simple. All you have to do is swim a mile at your local pool between May 12-26. You can complete it in one day or take as long as you like within that fortnight, and can swim either as an individual or as part of a team.

For further information or to enter, call the ActionLine on (01382) 451146 or pick up an entry form at your local pool.

Come on, you'll enjoy it! - Sharron Davies.

ANIMAL WELFARE

THE welcome end of the foot-and-mouth epidemic brings with it one real danger - the resumption of the cruel live animal trade.

The suffering of sheep and lambs in severely overcrowded trucks, often without food or water, for journeys which often last for 40 hours or more, is a practice that must never resume.

The foot-and-mouth crisis has cost the British taxpayer at least £2.7bn and has resulted in the death and suffering of countless animals.

The legacy of this crisis should be an end to future animal suffering.

I urge farmers not to go back to live exports. Instead, animals should be slaughtered here in Britain, with our exports being in carcass form.

Further, since we import exactly the same amount of meat as we export, where is the sense of this evil trade? - Patricia Ramsay, Northallerton.