Letters

THIS Government spins so fast it is in danger of disappearing. Successes are all their own work, failures all inherited.

Ministers smugly claim credit for reduced prices in retailing, cars and now banks, when both they and business were forced to act by consumer groups, the media and an angry public.

Now, with pressure mounting as petrol taxes zoom out of control, they arrogantly claim it's for the environment and now cornered, add to the equation the NHS and education.

They condemn Fat Cats yet claim increased expenses for themselves. They justify the ever-increasing tax burden and alter the benefit systems that only benefit Gordon Brown's ever bulging 'war chest'.

Their arrogant stance over pension increases was turned into a frightened retreat with sudden generous handouts from a Government shaken at the polls. - S Harnby, Stockton.

EUAN BLAIR

TONY Blair is probably right when he described his son Euan as basically a good kid.

Sadly, by aspiring to high office, Mr Blair has thrust his son into a situation where his rights to be a kid, good or bad, have been compromised to a degree which many of Euan's contemporaries would find intolerable.

One shudders to think what the consequences could have been had the boy been found, not by the police, but by one of the many people who would wish, not just Mr Blair but possibly the whole fabric of our society, ill.

The moral would seem to be that while Euan is guilty of no more than over-estimating his own capacity for alcohol, his father is guilty of under-estimating the potential risks of allowing the 16-year-old son of the Prime Minister of Great Britain to defy the country's licensing laws and lie drunk and unprotected in a gutter.

Mr Blair should understand that, like it or not, his family cannot be 'normal' while he pursues his chosen career.

He must therefore take appropriate steps to safeguard the interests of both his family and the nation. - RW Elleanor, Ferryhill.

HEALTH SERVICE

FROM time to time we hear a lot of complaints about hospitals and lots of times Darlington Memorial Hospital is targeted.

I would like to say I have no complaints, only praise for the nurses and doctors who looked after my husband when he was taken ill and rushed in.

They all did everything in their power that was humanly possible to save him. - Cicely Hauxwell, Darlington.

I WRITE to thank all the doctors and nurses involved in my care during my recent say in North Tees General Hospital (wards 24, 26 and 28). - Raymond Gibson, Trimdon Grange.

YOUR report (Echo, July 6) of the problems experienced by Dipton single mum, Gillian Raine, in getting prompt treatment when her daughter had a bad asthma attack, highlights the concern many people have in the Consett area about the continuing erosion of NHS services.

The loss of the Accident and Emergency Department at Shotley Bridge was a bitter blow for this area, and news that the Minor Injuries Unit is likely to close and we may lose a locally-based ambulance as well, is rubbing salt in the wound. The most vulnerable people, the elderly and children, are put at risk, especially during the evening and weekends because of this policy.

The issue at stake is the lack of adequate health care in the Consett area, and the steady and continuing erosion of services which we previously relied on. - David Rolfe, Consett.

TONY Blair has ignored pleas to help sufferers of MS. They are being denied access to the miracle drug Beta Interferon because of costs.

Elsewhere, £100,000 of Lottery money was given to move a rock from Wales to Stonehenge which fell off its raft and sank. What happens next? - TE Crook,

Bishop Auckland.

MANY readers will have heard about the proposal from NICE, the Government's advisory body on health treatments, to stop prescribing the new Beta Interferon drugs for people with multiple sclerosis.

This is heartbreaking, devastating news for people who have been waiting for treatment, sometimes for years, as a result of the NHS' post code lottery.

NICE does not argue with the scientific evidence that these drugs work by cutting the number of attacks people with MS suffer. But it says this is not enough to justify the cost. The drugs are expensive, but so is MS.

Most of the cost of MS attacks does not fall on the NHS, but on local social services and housing, on employers, social security and on the families of those affected.

We believe this ruling is a great injustice. There are no other treatments for MS that alter the course of this terrible disease. We believe the Government has played cat and mouse with us since the first licence of the treatment five years ago.

NICE has refused to hear evidence directly from people with MS. Once the final appraisal is published, our only chance of changing it is by persuading Alan Milburn, the Secretary of State for Health, and Jane Hutt, Assembly Secretary for Health and Social Services, that they do not want to go down in history as the people who didn't care about people with MS.

Here in the North of England, we are not prepared to accept any ruling which seems to disregard much of the evidence submitted. - Betty Roberts, Chairperson, The North of England Region, MS Society, Stanhope and Weardale Branch.

TOWN CENTRE

WHAT are the town, district and county councils doing about the run-down condition of Spennymoor's shopping area?

How are we to attract new business and industries to the area, to replace jobs lost at Rothmans and Electrolux when our town centre is beginning to look so run down? It is difficult to understand how a seemingly modern, prosperous town has such poor town centre facilities.

The councils of Spennymoor should be looking to rejuvenate our shopping areas and give the people of Spennymoor, especially the elderly and infirm who find it difficult to travel, the shopping amenities they deserve. - K Thompson, Spennymoor.