Hear all sides

NOW that the President of the European Commission, together with Gus O'Donnell, senior aide to the Treasury, have made it crystal clear that the introduction of the single currency has been a purely political process, can we expect Tony Blair and his euroland fanatics to desist from spouting their ridiculous, alarmist, propoganda about three million unemployed in Britain if we don't join the euro and similar rubbish about industrial wastelands.

Such nonsense from the Prime Minister brings the reputation of the whole Labour Party and its more level-headed supporters into disrepute and is simply not good enough in dealing with this debate.

The Prime Minister clearly wishes to bulldoze everyone into the EU superstate to satisfy his own personal, religio-political creed and ambition.

But he shows himself to be hopelessly out of touch with the overwhelming majority of the Labour Party's naturally patriotic supporters' feelings if he continues to delude himself with the belief that Britain's destiny (as he likes to call it) lies in Europe.

What rubbish. Becoming subjects forever to European law is hardly the attractive or desirable destiny that your average Labour man aspires to as I know him; only deluded sycophants will follow that road.

Perhaps it is high time that we started to consider a destiny which will most sensibly reside with people like ourselves, sharing our worldwide Commonwealth together with the United States of America, rather than in the United States of Europe. - Alan Rook, Newcastle.

YOU gave a superficial and biased treatment (Echo, Jan 2) to the enormously controversial subject of the single currency's introduction. Vague doubts expressed by a few shoppers aside, the event was hyped up to be a jolly occasion worthy of a trip over the Channel just for the fun of using bank notes with different pictures on them.

There are many on the continent angry and depressed by this event. The euro is a mistake for countless reasons and an injustice to the people of Europe who were never allowed a say on its acceptance.

The single tax and interest rates soon imposed on all 12 countries will lead to difficulties, especially for the smaller countries, less 'influential' at the Frankfurt bank.

Forget democracy in the Brussels 'court', only influence counts as in days of yore. None of these countries stands much chance of ever regaining political independence.

With their own governmental powers being divorced from economic control, they are now irreversibly subservient to the integration plans of Brussels. - Mrs C Bull, Darlington.

HONOURS LIST

YOU have recently given prominence (Echo, Dec 31) to the New Year's Honours awards.

Once again we have seen awards made to people for merely doing their jobs - soccer players, people from the arts, education and other spheres.

If we are to have an honours system, it should be reserved for people who make an extraordinary contribution beyond the call of duty for the common good and their fellow human beings.

There is little evidence of these criteria being applied nationally or locally.

How much longer does the nation have to suffer the indignity of this devalued system? - Alan Coultas, Darlington.

POSTAL SERVICE

THE letter concerning the postmen and women of Bishop Auckland (HAS, Jan 2) was an absolute disgrace and not at all a true reflection.

To say they are the scruffiest is a complete nonsense. The people of Bishop Auckland have some of the hardest working and smartest post people in the country. They go about their daily work in a way which gives the people of Bishop Auckland a first class service and certainly do not need to be criticised in such a way.

If Mr Richardson was to take a look at the new uniform he would realise that baseball caps are now part of the issue and are therefore allowed to be worn. The uniform is not the best in the world but it is certainly smart.

To say there are too many post people is another ridiculous statement. We have not got enough postmen/women to give the people of this area the quality they deserve, but that is all down to money and costs, something which our new company bosses Consignia are finding hard to comprehend at present. - A Robson, Communication Workers, Branch Chairman, Darlington.

POP IDOL

I HAVE followed with interest the articles about the Pop Idol programme and the fact that North-East telephone subscribers appear not to be able to get through on the voting lines.

While I was not one trying to get through in this instance, perhaps this is not the only programme with a phone-in voting line where North-East residents are not able to get any response.

We watched the holiday programme Wish You Were Here. I tried to phone when the telephone number was announced but all I got was the engaged tone or a voice telling me the line was busy. I tried for the rest of the programme with no luck, but at the end of the programme a winner was announced from Wales.

This is not the first time this has happened with a similar programme with a phone-in question.

Surely the fairest way to solve this problem is to have postal voting.

I wonder if any of your other readers have made similar complaints. - M. McLoughlin, Brompton, Northallerton.

LIKE many others I tried to vote for Zoe in the Pop Idol competition. From the time they told us the lines were open to vote I tried to get through. Eventually, after over an hour I did get through only to hear a recorded female voice telling me there was a fault on the line and to redial.

I cannot accept their explanation that we must all be dialling wrongly. Do they think we are all stupid in the North-East? More likely there is definitely something wrong at their end. - B. Tingate, Darlington.

MIDDLE EAST

I FULLY agree with D.W. Lacey (HAS, Jan 4) about people such as Hugh Pender being allowed to air and repeat his distortions of history.

Mr Pender could quite easily be drawing his inspiration from professional writer John Pilger who is afforded space not only in the Echo, but in some dailies, to write what my parliamentary representative describes as 'the same sick tosh' after I complained to him of this. - R. Lewis, Birtley.