MISTAKEN IDENTITY?: AM I alone in thinking that Barton the Pigeon (pictured, HAS, Nov 12) is more likely to be a bald eagle?

The beak, feather colours and legs of the soft toy bird all support my view, or are we becoming anti-American?

North-Easterners should be able to recognise a pigeon - even without the pie-crust.

Gerard Wild, Richmond, North Yorkshire.

Editor's footnote: The toy in question is indeed an eagle, but was initially mistaken for a pigeon, hence Barton the Pigeon.

JUST CRAZY...

POLITICAL correctness has gone mad at Middlesbrough Council. Do council tax payers really believe any Government would spend hundreds of thousands of pounds setting up a national Standards Board and introduce regulations requiring councillors and MPs to declare gifts, intending this to include a couple of apples and pears, or even a cup of tea?

Beechwood ward councillor Joan McTigue must surely have thought someone was having a joke at her expense when she received a written warning from the council's head of legal services, Richard Long, for receiving a pear, four apples and two plant cuttings (Echo, Nov 30).

I have been a councillor since 1985 and have never heard or seen anything in local government so ridiculous. Is it any wonder so many people are put off standing as councillors in local elections?

The next time I pay one of my regular visits to a ward resident and am offered a welcoming cup of tea and a scone, should I ask them for a receipt in case I am reported by Middlesbrough Council chiefs to the Standards Board of England for not declaring a gift?

Ken Walker, Independent Councillor, Gresham Ward, Middlesbrough.

CAMPAIGN LOBBY

MANY blind people are being "cheated" by not being allowed to claim the same level of benefit as wheelchair users. A group of local campaigners is travelling to the Houses of Parliament to lobby our MP, John Cummings (Easington), about this issue, on Monday.

I know some blind people (who can't drive and in many cases find it impossible to use public transport) are missing vital hospital appointments and job opportunities because their benefit does not cover the cost of taxis.

Not being able to get out independently stops many blind people from shopping, meeting friends and joining local clubs.

I support the Royal National Institute of the Blind (RNIB) campaign for a change to Disability Living Allowance (DLA) - a state benefit that allows people with other disabilities who can drive to claim its higher "mobility rate" worth £43.45 per week. People with serious sight loss can only claim the lower rate of £16.50 per week.

We will be asking our MP for his support for the many people in this constituency who could benefit from this change.

More campaign information is available from the RNIB on 020-7391-123.

Mrs SA Harrison, Blackhall Colliery, Hartlepool.

n Editor's footnote: Other writers submitted similar letters saying they also intended to take part in Monday's lobby.

CAUSE FOR PRIDE

THE headline on George Appleby's letter (HAS, Nov 16) caught my attention. It just said: Be Proud.

There had indeed been an astonishing Remembrance Day turnout from countries all over the world in order to honour the memory of the battle for this country's survival and of those who lost their lives.

The formation of strategies to avoid any similar devastation in Europe started soon after peace came following the Second World War.

Eventually, 15 countries formed what we now know as the European Union. Today, it has 25 member states, and Romania and Bulgaria join in 2007. This is definitely something to be proud of.

The EU will soon represent 500 million citizens, a number which matters in global affairs. There are problems in running such a big group and Britain may have an important role to play there, among other things.

Ed Balls, economic secretary to the Treasury and one of the main architects of the Government's five tests about the euro, said last summer: "To withdraw from the mainstream of Europe and diminish our influence would be bad for Britain, bad for London and bad for the city."

The anti-European outbursts in HAS now sound absurd and out-of-date.

Ms E Whittaker, Richmond, North Yorkshire.

LIFE SENTENCES

HAS anyone else had their spirits raised on learning that some particularly vile miscreant has been sentenced to life imprisonment, only to have them dashed on being told that in a relatively short time he will qualify for, and no doubt automatically be granted, parole?

Is not the practice of calling sentences "life" when they are anything but, a con intended to fool us, the public, into believing the authorities share our concern about violent crime?

Take the two youths who murdered London lawyer Tom ap Rhys Pryce (Echo, Nov 29). They got life, but in fact will be out by age 40, if not before. Where is the sense in that? Where's the justice?

The victim's family, especially his sweetheart, are now serving a real life sentence. So should his killers, and in their case it should be spent in conditions of maximum security and hardship.

Of course, if everyone got their just deserts, those two would now be facing not prison, but the rope.

T Kelly, Crook, Co Durham.

HOSPITAL TV

I MUST agree with the letter about hospital TVs (HAS, Nov 29). My dear Mam spent a long time in hospital last year, and I bought her TV cards which would last for about 36 hours.

She was extremely ill and passed away in January. While she was in Darlington Memorial Hospital, I asked if she could receive free television as she was a pensioner.

I was given a telephone number to call in Scotland, as the company that owned the TVs was based there, but they were not willing to allow my Mam to get free viewing.

She was in hospital for four months, and it cost me a small fortune in television cards, which should have been supplied by the hospital free of charge, as far as I'm concerned. The money I spent on the television cards does not bother me. The principle does.

The company which owns the televisions should hang its head in shame, and so should the hospital for allowing it.

Christopher Wardell, Darlington.

YOUTH SEX

ISN'T it time the Department of Health produced a campaign to deter young people from sexual activity?

Its latest campaign (Echo, Nov 21) urges young adults to make condoms essential when they are "out on the pull". What a disgusting attitude. It reinforces the current belief held by many young people that they have to have sex whenever they go out on a date.

Going "on the pull", as it is called, is treated like a sport and reduces young people to behaviour more like rutting animals. They are encouraged to think they are somehow better than others depending on how many people they've had sex with.

Our young people are worth far more than this. Why should their lives be blighted by sexually transmitted infections, because they've only even been told: "You can do it, but use a condom."

It's time they were told not how to, but how to resist the pressure to have sex until they are safely settled, preferably married, in a loving, permanent relationship.

EA Moralee, Billingham.

ALL WIND?

PROJECT developer Matt Pinfield of E.ON UK is quoted as saying the five wind turbines proposed for Haswell Moor, County Durham, "will displace more than 28,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide every year" (Echo, Nov 24).

Perhaps he would now explain exactly what this statement means; how this "displacement" would be achieved; and what form a tonne of carbon dioxide gas takes.

Unless he can give meaningful answers then the statement is at best misleading and at worst simply not true.

John Routledge, Witton Gilbert, Durham.