04/05/06

The truth is that England are no more than a better-than-average international team.

Without our one world class player (Wayne Rooney) our chances are non-existent, as most of our other players are very over-rated.

It's no coincidence that the Premiership team that has done the best in the Champions League is Arsenal, a team whose most gifted players are imports.

When the new Wembley is eventually completed the England football team will cease to be a genuine national team as all the full international games will take place there for decades to come.

So, if any football fans from the North-East want to watch an England game they face a round trip of 500 to 600 miles, which is very unfair.

Our national football team has become little more than a marketing opportunity for big business and no amount of people flying their little flags will change that. - Paul Rivers, Wallsend, North Tyneside.

ENGLAND MANAGER

WHILE I applaud the success that Steve McClaren has brought to Middlesbrough this season, I think that it would be the wrong decision by the FA if they make him the new England manager.

Now that Brazilian coach Luiz Felipe Scolari is out of the reckoning, I would like to see Bolton Wanderers' boss Sam Allardyce get the job with Manchester City's Stuart Pearce as his assistant. These two managers would do wonders for England, and their passion and no-nonsense approach could lead us to footballing glory.

But whoever becomes the next national coach, I hope that changing the captain is high on the agenda, and that the captaincy is given to Steven Gerrard or Frank Lampard, who seem to be more bothered about their football than their off-the-field activities, unlike David Beckham. - Christopher Wardell, Darlington.

ENGLAND SUBSTITUTE

LADIES in earlier times were advised to lie back and think of England. Now, I suggest they lie back, ponder their diaries and think of Max Clifford. "Not tonight, John, I have writer's cramp."

Anyway, Tracey Temple's pig in a poke has turned out to be anything but. Richly rewarding, I am sure it will go some way towards mending her broken heart. - D Kilvert, Darlington.

ENERGY CONSUMPTION

THE plight of so many is placed in the hands of so few - whether in the economics of countries so often dependent upon the superpowers and the moguls of corporate finance, or in the "climate change" debate which has enlightened many of us as individuals, if not many governments, which flagrantly ignore the obvious.

Unless we change the way we consume energy, the outcome will be calamitous.

Recently global warming has attracted a great deal of media attention and there has also been increasing focus on the social consequences - further loss of life through starvation and the scenes of destruction we have seen from storms and floods.

Power is an interesting concept. It implies that power can bring change. What we all hope for is that those with power can bring about something better.

Of course, priorities are always determined by wealth and relieving poverty, and investing in the Third World is dependent on conscience and goodwill. But while the poor of the world perish and despair, the energy is guzzled and gases are emitted in the advanced world.

Having care and compassion for those in the Third World is one thing. However, making changes to lifestyle will bring not only relief but real opportunity. - Bernie Walsh, Coxhoe, Durham.

WHAT CHOICE?

I AM more convinced than ever we are fast becoming a third rate country run by fourth rate politicians. I totally agree with Chris Greenwell (HAS, Apr 4), I also see no difference between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.

Mr Brown is always preaching fiscal prudence and rectitude. Yet what do we get? The Treasury hired a small brown dog for a television advertisement publicising tax credits.

When Mr Brown saw the advert he said he wanted a labrador instead. The remake cost the taxpayer £20,000.

This story, plus more tales of Government waste, totalling £82bn to date, are quoted in The Bumper Book of Government Waste by M Elliot and L Rotherham, which everyone should read if they are in doubt about what a pack of charlatans this Government is.

What is it going to cost the taxpayer to stage the Olympic Games? The Chancellor has pledged £3.4bn plus an extra £200m along with £300m from the Lottery.

We can't even build Wembley Stadium on time. What chance have we of building the Olympic venues on time without adding millions more to the budget? - A L Carter, Marske, Redcar.

EUROPEAN UNION

CORRESPONDENT Bill Morehead said the EU is criticised for making laws which we obey (HAS, Apr 29). I criticise our MPs, for we elect and pay them to make our laws.

We had the freedom to do anything we liked unless there was a law against it. The difference between this country's laws and the continental corpus juris system is they can only do something if there is a law saying they can.

Our MPs told us that the EU Constitution was "a tidying-up exercise", but Minister Frattini told the Foreign Affairs Commissioner of the European Parliament on the occasion of the anniversary of the signing of the Rome Treaty: "Negotiations to transform the present (EU) treaties into a real Constitution are the top priority of our Presidency."

Remember one of our ministers telling us that the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights was like the Beano comic? Well, it is to be given the same status when applying EU legislation as the Convention on Human Rights, while at the same time ignoring all the rights held in our own Bill of Rights and Magna Carta.

I would gladly work with Europeans, but I will not accept being governed by the European Union. - Anne Palmer, Wolverhampton.

DOUBLE-DEALING

THE latest piece of deception to emerge from the Government is "double devolution" - a supposedly wonderful concept of more local power for local government.

The plans, devised by South Shields MP David Miliband, are not about devolution or more political power to the local councils, they are firmly about centralisation with an extra layer of spin.

We are told that in the next few years central government plans to let go of central control in the North-East. It is like some other forms of "doubling", such as double negatives and doublethink.

The Government plans consist essentially of cutting out local democratic control of spending, services, resources, in favour of a direct relationship between central government and local "volunteers" and activists, who will, no doubt, be selected by the Government.

Yet more double-dealing from a discredited Government. - Peter Troy, Sedgefield.