DARLINGTON FC

AS a Quakers supporter of many years, I think we should realise that had it not been for George Reynolds, the club would have been finished as regards League football.

We should also realise that it is a business now and has to pay its way to survive. I also think we would be better staying at Feethams.

It is central to town, motorway and railway station and, if we can come to some agreement with the cricket club as regards access, we would be on a winner.

There is scope for alterations at the Polam end of the ground if we can demolish the old cottages.

We are not a football crazy town. I think the proposed new stadium will not be the success envisaged. We can support a good side, but as regards the Premier League status, never.

As regards the playing side, I really believe that we should go for some young lads just short of First Division class who I feel will do a good job for us, plus a few experienced players.

I cannot understand why our manager David Hodgson is getting a lot of stick from some supporters. I agree we should have got promotion this year, but it is the players who perform on the pitch not the boss and two seasons effort for promotion surely cannot be bad.

So I say George and David, do it this year for us. And to Mr Reynolds, stay put at Feethams and develop it. - Name and address supplied.

I FEAR that the recent startling exodus of regulars from the Quakers' ranks and the apparent non-arrival of replacements might point to a lower level of ambition than has been claimed to date.

Surely we do not intend to aim for promotion with the likes of Nogan to spearhead the challenge! Current events (and non-events) would seem to make nonsense of your headline (Echo, May 27): Our dream is on hold for a year. - Simon Drew, Hutton Magna, North Yorks.

AGEISM

IT is ageism that has given me a pension for the last five years. It is ageism that has given me cheap cinema tickets and buses and other concessions.

It is ageism that gets rid of the dead wood of society and allows the strong young tree to grow.

The scouting organisation is very wise to have an age limit for its officers (Echo, July 12) because it allows them to get rid of good voluntary servants before they stultify the organisation. The volunteers who still feel they want to give something can do it without being an officer.

An officer dismissed because of age cannot feel selected for dismissal and feel hurt. If he does feel hurt he is probably thinking about himself not the organisation. - Derek A Smithson, Middlesbrough.

I AGREE with the ruling of retirement of warranted scout leaders at 65. I am approaching that age and feel that even the fit, involved, 65-year-old scouters will benefit from a young takeover.

After a short break to allow new management changes, they can remain a voluntary helper.

When my group was in the 30 plus age group many were attracted to secular activities away from church groups when the oldies hung on too long. I now am in the "we have always done it this way" age group. Hopefully, I will not say it. - Jean Wagstaff, Middlesbrough.

PETER MULLEN

IN his weekly attack on Tony Blair, Peter Mullen describes his own teenage drunken escapades.

While sympathising with Euan, he berates Tony for standing by his son.

Then Mr Mullen goes on to say: "But next time you see your dad, tell him to get a life."

So the silly man thinks that the Prime Minister doesn't have a life. - JR Thomson, Shotton Colliery.

UNEMPLOYMENT

I UNDERSTAND £45m is to be spent on finding jobs for the long term unemployed. This is money wasted.

Why not try offering people a decent living wage instead of the pittance thousands of people are expected to work for?

The goal the Government strives for of total employment is impossible to achieve. As computer technology advances and more robots are created to do man's work, fewer and fewer people will be required to work.

We were told this many decades ago, but nothing has ever been done to prepare people for a life without work.

The day will come when a child will be born who will never work because there will be no work for this child. It will become a citizen of life only. - TE Crook, Bishop Auckland.

ASYLUM SEEKERS

I TOOK one look at Trevor Agnew's letter (HAS, July 11) and rejoiced.

At last, in the pages of the left-wing Northern Echo a correspondent other than myself who preaches a bit of right-wing realism. Keep up the excellent work, Mr Agnew.

In this crazy Britain of starving children and unemployed men, all indigenous whites, Tony Blair began his regime by promising the radical left that thousands more coloured immigrants would be admitted. It seems that Blair, though a total fool, is an optimist who thoroughly believes in the workability of enforced multi-racialism (Stalinist style). - Andrew Lightfoot, Bridlington.

WARTIME MEMORIES

I SERVED on HMS Hood from 1937 to 1941. During the Second World War at the time of the evacuation of British troops from Dunkirk, our ship, HMS Hood, was called in to Devonport.

We stood there for four days, during which time all officers had to vacate their cabins in order to make them ready to accommodate the King and Queen, King George VI and the present Queen Mother, and their two daughters, and also Winston Churchill and his war cabinet. Their names were put on the cabin doors.

No one was allowed ashore during those four days in June 1940. The reason for this was an invasion by German troops was expected.

When the crisis passed we went back to sea to carry on our duties.

I wonder what the Dunkirk veterans would think, that while they were being shelled, dive bombed and massacred on the beaches, their rulers were preparing to run away to Canada. - Name and address supplied.

NUCLEAR FUEL

IT is nice to know that the Japanese will get £40m compensation from the UK for the botched-up atomic fuel job.

Is there any chance that they might invest it and pay some of the interest to the families of British armed forces' men that they brutalised and worked to their deaths, who they captured as prisoners of war? - E Reynolds, Wheatley Hill.

LAW AND ORDER

LORD Birt, former director general at the BBC, has been appointed the new crime buster by the Government. It is another case of who you know, not what you know.

His main job is to analyse crime trends, causes of crime and ways to fight crime. But what's Lord Birt's knowledge of law and order? We are told it is an unpaid one day-a-week job.

Hardly the time for a newly-appointed crime buster to warm the office seat let alone put forward ideals on crime fighting.

Many good ideas may have come from the public if they had been asked. But dare I say this, how about appointing Mr Zero Tolerance, Ray Mallon, full time. - Jack Amos, Willington.

RUTH CAMPBELL

WHAT a pity the usually excellent Ruth Campbell feels that owning or wearing a Buddha bracelet will have any effect on her health or happiness (Echo, June 30).

Come on Ruth, such ideas are only in your imagination. Wearing a bracelet, necklace or amulet of any kind will not boost your life in any way and I'm sure you know that really. Don't encourage your readers to waste their money on rubbish. - E A Moralee, Bilingham.