POLITICS: CORRESPONDENT M Anderson says that disenchanted Tory voters may soon vote for UKIP (HAS, Nov 29). It is equally likely that Labour voters will do so.

Britain is part of a fascist country called "Europe". Fascism is the rule by a privileged elite. Proponents, such as Hitler and Mussolini, believed that there is an underclass - you and me - who should be controlled and set to work for the benefit of a powerful, more intellectual and altogether superior class which seeks to control its country's major industries.

In the EU government, along with its regional offices and quangos, we have the ruling class making laws by the thousand every year and spending our money.

We vote for our well paid, but virtually powerless MEPs, on party basis only, having no knowledge of any future plans. Thus our interests can be safely ignored as no one's job is at risk.

Inevitably, billions have gone missing, yet no major prosecutions have taken place. Major players are immune from prosecution anyway.

As supporters of the EU, Conservative, Labour and Liberal parties are all far more right-wing than UKIP. Our trade is safe. We need out. - Charlotte Bull, UK Independence Party, Darlington.

LORDS' REFORM

ACCORDING to some national press reports it seems the Leader of the Commons, Jack Straw, is ready to put forward a new form of reform of the House of Lords.

About 60,000,000 people live here, but 1,397 of those - 646 MPs and 751 members of House of Lords - believe they have the right to change the law-making process without consulting the remaining 59,998,603 of us because, as things stand, only the 646 MPs can join the best club in town and many don't want to give up the chance of membership and, in the case of party leaders, the chance to ennoble friends and cronies.

If the time already spent on this subject had been used to hold a democratic referendum on the subject it would have been over by now and the people would be electing those they want to govern the country and not the people a party leader wants to govern the country.

It's about time this country had a written Bill of Rights so politicians would know what they have been elected for and their "anything goes" attitude brought to an end. - Peter Dolan, Newton Aycliffe, Co Durham.

POLITICAL FUNDING

I AGREE with Peter Barron when he suggests the general protection of the Freedom of Information Act (From the Editor's Chair, Nov 27).

In fact, local authorities that suggest there is a cost burden on providing answers as an excuse have now been provided with the opposing conundrum to deflate such an argument.

If, as suggested, there is a cost on council officers' time to provide Freedom of Information (FOI) answers, there is surely a cost on the time of the same officers when the Labour Party uses them for monetary transactions from council payroll systems (Echo, Nov 25).

While I find it disturbing that Labour Party councillor allowances are being levied at source from public funds, some may have sympathy with their position, if not their principles.

Having used FOI, I recognise that councillor allowances and expenses have doubled over the last few years. If allowance/expenses make a large part of your income, what would you do? Stand up for principles and lose the lot, or hand over a percentage of your vastly increased publicly-funded allowance to the Labour Party?

Local authorities are not an extension of the Labour Party and should refuse to have any dealings with this back-door political funding. - Jim Tague, Bishop Auckland Conservatives.

UNEMPLOYMENT

ALTHOUGH well qualified - I have a degree and a PhD in engineering as well as plenty of experience - I am long-term unemployed.

While working in the engineering sector I was, for many years, a member of the Amicus trade union, paying a monthly subscription, part of which went to fund the Labour Party.

But since I have been unemployed, Amicus will give me no assistance. I have written to my local MP, Dari Taylor, about my plight (she was in part funded by my trade union contributions) but she merely replied telling me the address of my nearest dole office.

What representation is there for the unemployed if not from trade unions or the Labour Party? - Mark Lee, Chartered Engineer, Ingleby Barwick, Stockton.

SHOT AT DAWN

FOLLOWING the pardons for 306 soldiers shot at dawn for alleged cowardice during the First World War, campaigners should press for a national memorial service.

Durham Cathedral would be a more suitable venue than London. Seven members of the Durham Light Infantry received pardons. Durham would be convenient for their relatives and supporters of the petition organised by The Northern Echo.

The names of all 306 soldiers, and their ages, could be read out by leading campaigner John Hipkin. The service could be shown on television.

A senior member of the Royal Family, the Prime Minister and the Defence Secretary could be invited to attend. - Name and address supplied.

NELSON MANDELA

HUGH Pender, with reference to Nelson Mandela, exhorts us to "honour this giant of a man" (HAS, Nov 30). Why, I would ask? The poor in South Africa are as poor as they were under apartheid, the wealthy just as rich, and HIV Aids is rampant.

The inequalities, even with so-called black leadership, are just as pernicious and just as debilitating to those who neither own, nor control the country they inhabit.

The poor have exchanged one master for another, and they both conform to the stereotypes of capitalism. We own, you do not. We control, you do not. We live in luxury, you live in poverty. Nothing changes, everything stays the same. Mandela notwithstanding. - Steve Colborn, Seaham, Co Durham.

I WAS interested to read Hugh Pender's tribute to Nelson Mandela (HAS, Nov 30). A truly great man indeed, but the "one outstanding shining light"? I'm not too sure.

Surely Martin Luther King was a beacon to all victims of oppression and repression? Mandela acknowledged the contribution made by Mr King in his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech in 1993. I agree Nelson Mandela should be mourned and honoured when he has left us, and not forgotten, as appears the case with Martin Luther King. - Kev McStravick, Darlington.

MUSLIMS

HOW Christian of Pete Winstanley (HAS, Dec 1) yet again to defend the indefensible by presenting the Muslim Council of Great Britain as the Great Apologists.

Visit their website. I see no denunciation of any of the outrages perpetrated by the Muslim World.

Do not view the world through rose-tinted spectacles, Mr Winstanley. You may fall foul of aimed propaganda. - Colin T Mortimer, Pity Me, Durham City.

PEOPLE WHO HAVE NEVER...

FOLLOWING his recent column on Societies of People Who Have Never... there are one or two Harry Mead (Echo, Nov 29) will never be able to join - People Who Have Never Been a Smug, Self-Righteous, Holier-Than-Thou Prig being one. - Graham Lipthorpe, Stockton.