HEDGEHOGS

HEDGEHOGS don't end their hibernation until the warmer weather in spring but you may well see one bumbling round in winter. They often wake and forage for food, even when it's snowing.

If you do see a hedgehog, please spare it some food. Some of that left-over turkey, or a dish of tinned meat-based pet food with a bowl of clean water will help your local hedgehog - and you'll be rewarded in spring when it polishes off the slugs heading for your lettuce seedlings.

Learn more about hedgehogs by joining the British Hedgehog Preservation Society. Membership costs only £7.50 a year for one person, £12.50 for a family or group.

For details, and a free copy of our Hogalogue, send an A5 stamped, self-addressed envelope to: A H Coles, British Hedgehog Preservation Society. Knowbury House, Shropshire, SY8 3LQ.

OSAMA BIN LADEN

AT last bin Laden has told the world the reason he organised the slaughter of thousands of innocent Christians. It was to stop America giving aid to Israel. When will he realise that all he has accomplished is the exact opposite of his aims? - E Reynolds, Wheatley Hill.

CONSTITUTION

THERE is no official religion in France but in Britain this will not be the case while the Queen is the head of the Church of England (Harry Mead, Jan 2).

Our crown is part of our constitution as it sits in Parliament.

Mr Mead mentions Royals and polo - the proletariat don't appreciate polo, because they have never had the chance to, and probably the polo set would not welcome the lower echelons of society at one of their matches.

Paternalism goes with Britain, along with our British Constitution. - Alfred H Lister, Guisborough.

ZIMBABWE

ROBERT Mugabe is increasingly harassing his political opponents as an election draws near in Zimbabwe because he trails in the polls.

He arrested Tsvangirai three times in three days. His militia is beating up people who favour the opposition. Mugabe is shoving through parliament repressive bills against the populace. This is a travesty of democracy and the world should tell him this in no uncertain terms. - F Atkinson, Shincliffe.

CHRISTMAS

THE editorial (Echo, Dec 24) reminds us how the spectre of terrorism still haunts us all. On the same page, the Bishop of Durham, explaining the real miracle of Christmas, agrees that terrorism is a real evil.

The question the Americans keep asking - 'why do they hate us so much?' - is answered by the Bishop with the economic terrorism the West has been bullying the world with for a very long time. We have made ourselves immune from the stark facts of the whole world in which we live until the whole range of injustices has blown up in our faces.

Christmas in the West is in real danger of becoming totally commercial. We overcame the darkness by literally celebrating in a blaze of light.

For 50 per cent of the world's population suffering from malnutrition, the darkness is never overcome. - Douglas Punchard, Kirkbymoorside.

ANIMAL WELFARE

THE editorial (Echo, Dec 31) about foot-and-mouth begs the questions, who were the real culprits and will we ever really care enough to put the welfare of the animal before our own greed and gluttony?

While the events of September 11 and the war on terrorism have taken precedence, the slaughter of so many animals in such a cruel and barbaric manner must question human behaviour and what seems to be gross hypocrisy.

Is inhumanity to humanity not inextricably linked to our treatment of other species of life and the fact we can slaughter billions of animals each year and not care one jot?

It seems that civilisation is a long way off and the Kingdom of Heaven is a figment of someone's imagination. - John Young, Crook.

CULTURE

A LARGE number of HAS correspondents have written in support of the argument that we are now a multi-cultural society. Their thinking was summarised by EA Moralee (HAS, Dec 22) who stated that immigrants should leave their old ways behind, in the country they have abandoned.

They class immigrants as castaways who have been dumped on a desert island. They forget the immigrants have extended families living in the country of their origin.

Would they expect an Englishman who was born in Penzance and then moved to new employment in Aberdeen to wear a kilt and learn to play the bagpipes to suit his new culture?

If he took his wife and family to visit his extended family in Penzance, travelling by train, the journey would take 13 hours which would be about the same time it would take an Asian family from Oldham or Bradford to fly from Manchester to India or Pakistan.

Instead of endlessly debating the concept of multi-culturalism, which only grades people like salmon and causes tension and lawlessness among an inward-looking society, we should agree that there are only two cultures in Britain today: The indigenous population, who are monocultural, and the immigrant population, who are dualcultural.

This would assist the whole population to be outward-looking, leading to a greater understanding of the reasons why people choose to come and reside here but who also want to retain their identity with their families in the land of their origin. - Thomas Conlon, Kirk Merrington, Spennymoor.

COLD WEATHER

IT has been reported that some unfortunate froze to death as a result of having gone out without adequate clothing. If I'm not mistaken, human body temperature must be maintained at 37C. Should it drop to 35C, hypothermia sets in, and probable death at 27C. Add to this alcohol, and you have tragedy just waiting to happen.

But despite the recent snow and sub-zero temperatures, some fools strut around - particularly young people going around the pubs - as though they were in the tropics. But even those in the tropics wrap up at night or when they're at high altitude. All I ever heard on the Altiplano, in Bolivia, was "mucho frio" as they huddled around heaters. I wonder what they would say were they to witness the antics of the British? "Fengo delor de cabeza" (I have a headache)?

As Bertrand Russell said: "Where the environment is stupid prejudiced or cruel, it is of merit to be out of harmony with it". - AP Kirk, Teesside.