09/05/05

The lady wrote my voting number - which is directed to me personally - on the counterfoil of the voting slip.

I challenged this is as they could then in future determine how I had voted. I said that this was not a secret ballot.

I was advised to talk to the returning officer, a Mr JG Turnbull at Sedgefield Borough Council.

I spoke to him and he advised me this was done at every election to protect the public from people who abused voting slips so they could discover who they were and to prosecute them.

I said that by putting peoples' names on voting slips they were not having a secret ballot.

I was told that I would not be allowed to vote unless I allowed them to do this.

I no longer have a secret ballot. This country is no longer free and democratic. - Dr Alan Bell, Trimdon.

CULTURAL IDENTITY

WHILE reading C Wardell's letter (HAS, Apr 30) concerning the recent celebrations of St George's Day, I could not help but wonder not only how many similar celebrations have taken place, but how many people belonging to ethnic minorities actually found it offensive?

Because if the answer is none, then should we not start asking ourselves why for years we have been brainwashed into believing that it is offensive?

After all, history shows that culture turns individuals into a people and a people into a nation.

Depriving a people of their cultural identity or causing them to reject it through subtle means, such as political correctness, (which has caused people to view their own history and culture as racist), makes them easier to manipulate and to weaken. - CT Riley, Spennymoor.

HALT THIS VANDALISM

I WAS shocked and appalled to hear from my sister in Darlington about the plans for the High Row.

Born and bred in Darlington, I have always followed its progress with great interest, although I moved away many years ago.

It moved from being a rather sleepy backwater to a quite vibrant town with an attractive town centre.

One of its great attractions, of course, and probably the only thing that made it different, was the Victorian heritage of the High and Low Row and Prebend Row.

Much of the development on the lower side, especially the inevitable and dreary shopping mall, was much less attractive, because it was just 1ike everywhere else.

We recently visited Rugby, once an attractive old market town, which I had not seen for many years. It has been regenerated and now it looks just like everywhere else and isn't worth a second look.

Darlington is planning to do away with that lovely Victorian street furniture which is probably almost unique. I shudder to think what its replacement might be. How much consultation has there been?

Perhaps the usual council type, which seems to consult only people who are likely to agree or don't care or think anything over 50 years old should be brought up to date?

My sons were as horrified as I was when I told them and they only know Darlington from family visits when they were growing up. Is it too late to stop this vandalism?

I have written to council leader John Williams expressing these views. How much do the people of Darlington care? - SM Green, Sheffield.

SAME STORY

SO we now have a new Pope. Many people must have listened carefully to his initial address to the world - what a disappointment.

Unless I misheard it, it appeared to hold no compassion whatsoever.

No compassion for the world's poor. No compassion for families to be allowed to limit their families by contraception. No compassion for same sex partnerships. And, most certainly, no compassion whatsoever for animals.

A new Pope could have meant new beginning, new understandings and a positive way forward without lowering morals etc.

Apparently not. We appear to be going to continue down the same old road. What a waste. - Pam Ward, Durham.

SHOULD the Pope visit England? (HAS, Apr 26). A resounding no. Our freedom from domination by the Roman Church was won for us by the blood of thousands of martyrs.

Oh yes, I know it was many years ago that Henry VIII broke with Rome, but the facts still stand.

The Roman Church dominates the EU and clearly intends to have increasing influence there. The late Pope was preparing to proclaim the founders of the EU saints. Independence from the EU and the Roman Church are all but one and the same thing.

Of course, the new Pope is sympathetic to the ecumenical movement, providing the Roman Church is predominant, as he has already made clear in previous announcements.

If discussions by the ecumenical movement are carefully examined, it is clear that while other Christian denominations offer to make concessions on certain things for the sake of unity, Rome stands firm and yields not a fraction of an inch. - EA Moralee, Billingham.

PROMISED LAND

I HAVE to admire our local authority which, in the middle of extensive and expensive road works in the centre of Darlington, which are managing to bring about almost total daily chaos, still has the resources to construct a pedestrian island in Carmel Road South.

This notorious accident blackspot, which has claimed many victims, has now been made safe and the hordes who cross daily between Ravensdale Road and Linwood Grove can now rest easy in their beds at night.

This, of course, is the latest of the new initiatives from our local representatives, hell bent on turning an attractive market town into a pale imitation of Milton Keynes.

I hope this journey to the promised land does not take them down Nunnery Lane, Salutation Road, Hummersknott Avenue, Hartford Road or many other roads in the town which are in a shocking state of disrepair.

If it did, they may find themselves falling into one of the very many cavernous holes in these roads, never to be seen again.

Ah, now there's a hope to cling on to. - D Kilvert, Darlington.

STRANGELY SILENT

HAS anyone else noticed as I have, that when the proprietors and supporters of wind farms are faced with pertinent technical or practical questions on the claims they make, they become strangely silent?

In fact, just like their turbines they stop spinning if the conditions are not right. I wonder why? - J Routledge, Witton Gilbert.

GREAT NOISE, BOYS

TODAY I heard the merry crash of bins being emptied (and bottles and papers) and I thought what a good job they do.

So let's have three cheers for these hard-working people. We would be lost without them. - F Atkinson, Shincliffe.