ENVIRONMENT: THE doom and gloom merchants are at it again. We are being inundated with TV programmes stating that global warming is now a fact.

The only fact is that a lot of people depend on it happening to keep their cushy jobs and receive handouts from our gullible Government with our hard-earned taxes. We are having our beautiful countryside blighted with useless wind turbines that contribute minuscule quantities of electricity and consequently will have negligible effect on the atmosphere. Only nuclear power can deliver the amount required in the future.

We are constantly told that, because of global warming, the ice caps are melting and that the sea will rise several metres, but they fail to mention that the average temperature on Antarctica, which holds over 90 per cent of Earth's ice, is minus 37 degrees centigrade - and there I was under the impression that water froze at zero.

According to some scientists, Earth's surface temperature has risen by a whopping half of one degree over the last 100 years, but even allowing for this, if global warming is happening and as we are being told it is the result of us burning fossil fuels, wouldn't logic dictate that the atmosphere would be warming up? But NASA, using the most sophisticated satellite monitoring equipment available, states that air temperature over the last 20 years of the 20th century actually cooled by half of one degree.

We are now being told that global dimming is masking the problem of global warming, and as usual it is our fault. Yet again no mention of the power of nature. - Stephen Feaster, Pickering.

REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT

THE Regional Spatial Strategy is a consultation for the North-East. It is supposed to set out a vision for improving the quality of life in the North-East as a place in which to live and work and will determine how much development can take place in the region and where it will be located.

It is very important that we are aware of it and make our views known because it will influence and shape policies to 2021 and beyond.

We all need to make our views heard as part of the process called The View Shaping the North-East, so visit the website at www.viewnortheast.com to see details of events taking place and where there is a forum to give your views online if you wish. It is vital we do so otherwise this document will be forced upon us and it really leaves County Durham, especially the rural regions, out of the picture - focussing on Newcastle and Teesside in particular.

We really need to say that we, the people of County Durham, want more affordable housing, better public transport links, investment in jobs by better apprenticeship schemes, rural projects - and not what an unelected government body dictates to us. Please make your feelings known before the deadline of February 4.

Even the document promoting this issue by the North-East Assembly (a body already in existence and not the one voted against so vehemently in the recent referendum) is published from an address in Newcastle upon Tyne. Durham County Council has its own democratically-produced strategic view, why are we not allowed to follow that? - Anthea Tallentire, Bishop Auckland.

ROYAL FAMILY

IN years gone by, the names given to our monarchs reflected the attributes of that person.

This gave us names like Alfred the Great, William the Conqueror or Richard the Lionheart, while for those of a less partial disposition, we had Edward the Confessor and Ethelred the Unready.

With his likeness for drinking and brawling, what would be a suitable name for Prince Harry should he ever ascend the throne? King Harry the Unsteady has a certain ring to it, but seems not to cover his recent tendency to dress as a Nazi.

After some thought, my best suggestion is King Harry the Complete Thicko. This gives a pointer to his bottom-of-the-year academic result at Eton and can be combined with his standards of behaviour to give as full a picture of the man for future generations to study. - Martin Birtle, Billingham.

IMMIGRATION

I WOULD like to express my support for John Young's letter (HAS, Jan 13) in which he voices his opposition to the left wing political thugs who are hell-bent on destroying our precious homeland and are too stupid to realise that ruinous policies on immigration will eventually lead to civil war in England.

The answer to this nightmare lies in the hands of the voters at the next election. If they continue to vote for this Marxist Government, which is intent on destroying nation states in order to set up a superstate, which could easily be taken over by a dictator of Stalinist pretensions, they have only themselves to blame for the consequences. - Williamson Morrison, Middlesbrough.

IRAQ

THE most momentous decision any Prime Minister can make is to take us to war against another nation. Our Prime Minister took us to war with Iraq on the clear understanding that it had weapon of mass destruction and was a threat to world peace.

Now we learn that quietly, almost secretly, the hunt for weapons has been abandoned, without even any formal announcement.

One cannot but contrast this to the endless speeches and TV interviews given by our Prime Minister warning us of the grave danger posed by Iraq. Almost a year after the war started he was boasting at a press conference: "I am absolutely convinced and confident about the case on weapons of mass destruction. You and others will be eating your words."

Now, after the death of 75 British troops, 1,354 Americans, tens of thousands of Iraqis and the murder in the most brutal fashion of a number of men and women hostages, it is confirmed we went to war on a pack of lies.

I am certain that any other person except Tony Blair, after having made an error with such a monumental consequences, would have resigned. If he does not have the integrity to resign before the General Election he should be hounded out of office by the British people. - Stan Smith, South Shields.