REPLACE LEADER

I HAVE only read letters condemning policies of Councillor Ken Manton, leader of Durham County Council (HAS, Apr 18). His only support, I suspect, is from private care home owners anticipating more of our taxes to line their pockets.

If his figures are correct, can he explain how overheads, repairs and staff wages cost so much more in council-owned homes than in those of private owners?

Coun Manton's policy seems to be to extract our ever-increasing council tax and hand it to private enterprise. How much was Arriva enriched by the council's purchase and on-going maintenance costs of Durham bus station?

How many thousands of pounds go to Scarlet Band for running near-empty buses every day for the park-and-ride schemes?

Coun Manton's "caring" for the elderly has resulted in myself and my neighbours being denied the use of public transport if we are unable to walk two miles to and from the nearest bus stop.

Even if within the law, it must be morally wrong to demand large taxes from elderly citizens, hand them to private business, then take from us the one thing we received in return, our bus service.

I hope Labour Party members call Coun Manton's bluff and replace him as leader with someone who cares for ordinary people instead of big business. - John W Scott, Kelloe, Durham.

BNP BACKING

I WISH to register my objection to your Comment column (Echo, Apr 18) which described the BNP as a "threat" and its supporters as "vile". I am supporting the BNP because I value my homeland and can see quite clearly it is being lost not only to me, but also my children.

What is so "vile" about trying to stop this insidious process? It is the left-wing fanatics who are for this imposition on the British people and since they stem from Marxism perhaps they should read these words in the Communist Manifesto: "You do not have any land, therefore you do not have a country, so if we take your land, we are not robbing you of anything."

A more blatant con than that statement would be hard to imagine. Communism changed its tactics in the 1920s when a group of them set up the "Frankfurt School", ostensibly to study Marxism but covertly to decide how to acquire countries by means other than armed revolution.

They decided to re-educate people, without them realising it, institute political correctness as a tool, and take by stealth instead of force.

This is surely what is going on here now in England. - William Morrison, Newton Aycliffe, County Durham.

IN your Comment (Echo, Apr 18) you ask readers to pledge to vote on May 4 "and keep the BNP in the gutter". To do that, can you tell us who to vote for? Should we vote for the rubbish who are governing us presently, or maybe the rubbish that governed us between 1979 and 1997, or better still the LibDems, best known at general elections as a waste of a vote?

As the media hysteria surrounding the BNP gathers momentum you seem to be missing the point, it being: Why is the BNP looking to be a good option? - Gary McTeer, Darlington.

IN your Comment column (Echo, Apr 18) you label the BNP as evil and vile - this follows the pattern of others with left-wing tendencies, but as usual there is no printed evidence to support your accusation.

One assumes that you are aware of the intent of the BNP, possibly from some form of manifesto. If this is the case, why do you not print the evidence so that your readers can see just what the BNP and its supporters are trying to achieve?

I await with interest the appearance of this letter in HAS. - T Horne, Darlington.

ENERGY PRICE RISES

I HAVE complained to Energy Watch and MP Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat energy spokesman, about the hefty gas and electricity price increases imposed by the private utility firms.

I have asked Mr Davey to investigate why a utility firm imposed a 22 per cent price increase having announced £1.5bn profit.

I am not against private firms making reasonable profits. However, many vulnerable people, such as the elderly, will be hit next winter and many small firms may have to lay off staff because of these increases.

Energy Watch say that average gas prices have increased by 63.3 per cent since 2003 and electricity by 44.2 per cent. Energy Watch's reply to my complaint says that before deregulation, the odd publicly-owned gas and electricity boards put up their prices with regularity and there was no alternative.

My reply to that statement is that under privatisation exactly the same is happening. With an added cost of all of the "cold selling" under privatisation. - Councillor Ben Ord, Chairman, Spennymoor Liberal Democrats.

RAIL ALTERNATIVE

IN reply to Bob Jarratt (HAS, Apr 17) I did not call for the restoration of our pre-Beeching rail network. That would have been silly. I called for the restoration of as much of it as possible.

I am aware, as he is, that we are a small, overcrowded island, with building land at an absolute premium: all the more reason why far less of it should be swallowed up by new motorways, bypasses, etc, - the only solution the Government seems able to come up with to solve traffic needs.

Railways make a much more viable alternative. They make sense environmentally, economically and demographically - certainly far more than Bob Jarratt's totally impracticable suggestion of ubiquitous road tolls. - Tony Kelly, Crook.

QUICKIE DEGREES

I WAS astonished to read that the Government plans to reduce from three years to two the number of years that university students will have to study to gain an honours degree.

This reduction is not being made for educational reasons, but to reduce the amount of debt that students incur as a consequence of the Government introducing student tuition fees. Why not reduce it to one year and they will save even more?

Truly it has been written: "Whom God would destroy He first sends mad". - Bert Ward, Darlington.

DOCTORS' PAY

WHILE I fully support and admire the hard work and contribution doctors make to society I cannot support the massive pay rises recently given to them by Tony Blair.

Some doctors are receiving as much as £250,000 (Echo, Apr 19) while there are children living in severe poverty in the UK who may face serious deprivation until 2020.

This Government appears to only help the rich get richer, while the poor must fend for themselves. - Gillian McGuigan, Darlington.

SADLY MISSED

I WAS very saddened to read of the passing of Ray Selkirk, a mountain among men who was an airline pilot, qualified mariner and lecturer in archaeology (Echo, Apr 18).

For the rest of my days, I shall remember making his acquaintance at a talk that he gave some years ago to a club that I was a member of. His achievements were great and numerous. He was the type of chap that used to put the great into Britain. I am sure he has influenced many of our lives and thinking. - J P Lassey, Thirsk.