ELECTRICITY: I WOULD like to write and thank NEDL staff for all their marvellous work, under the worst conditions, that they did over the weekend to give us back our electricity.

I even received an apologetic phone call from them, when they enquired if we were back on and had no more problems.

I do know that the engineers are paid to do this work but I wonder how many of us would like to go up a ladder in a gale force wind to do the repairs? I think they are heroes.

I was prompted to write after reading a negative comment by a member of the public, who complained that when he rang the electricity company he only received a recorded message. Perhaps he didn't stop to think that if they had had to man every call in person they would have had to employ about 250,000 personnel to answer the calls, that being the approximate amount of people without electric.

I presume, like us, everyone coped as best they could, and again my family and I thank the engineers for their work and expertise. - Jane Monk, Hamsterley.

JERRY SPRINGER

THE Jerry Springer Opera was outrageous. Deliberately provocative. Bound to upset some people.

Should it even have seen the light of day, never mind the TV lights?

I found it very funny, sad in parts, and hugely entertaining throughout. I predict an even longer run for it than expected in London Theatreland. With cheap rail tickets I might even be tempted to suffer a 500-mile round trip to see the opera live.

The performance was stunningly original. I'm normally no great fan of opera, singing in Italian, words that you cannot hear, written centuries ago for long-dead audiences. Dealing with the reality and culture of today was so refreshing.

It was also so very, very, British. Brave, humorous and prepared to be adventurous.

Congratulations to all involved and especially the BBC. It is a very long time since I have watched three continuous hours of TV. - Stuart Hill, Darlington.

PETER MULLEN

WHAT a puzzling column by Peter Mullen (Echo, Jan 4). How could the East Asian disaster be reported without showing bodies of the victims?

The thousands of bodies were mixed with and in the ruins of the towns and villages. The coffins and body bags were all covered so no recognisable face was ever shown.

Why does Peter Mullen only attack the BBC? Were not all the TV channels equally guilty, if guilty they all were?

Peter Mullen seems to take every opportunity, true or false, to attack any public service, even one which apparently regularly employs him. - Eric Gendle, Nunthorpe.

PETER Mullen's dislike of the BBC is well-known to regular readers, but his outburst (Echo, Jan 4) goes beyond what is reasonable or fair.

Several (if not all) other TV news channels showed us distressing pictures like those Mr Mullen complains of, and many more could be seen in the national press, including some respected broadsheets.

Moreover, these pictures were nowhere presented as entertainment. The very idea is repulsive, and does Mr Mullen no credit.

Like many another journalistic punchbag, (education, train services, post and telephones, the NHS) the BBC is always a safe bet for the scribbler to work out on.

Mr Mullen commits a serious injustice in suggesting that BBC staff were delighted by the Asian tsunami catastrophe, since it gave them something dramatic to report in an otherwise slow news period.

I hope no-one ever levels such a charge at him. - Bob Jarratt, Richmond.

ID CARDS

I WAS until recently confused on the Lib Dem position regarding ID cards.

The great defender of liberty and the rights of criminals, Mark Oaten MP, is never off the airwaves these days talking up his opposition to ID cards.

The Lib Dems have decided that opposing them is a great vote winning idea.

Good luck to them. But would it be appropriate to remind people that Mr Oaten was previously a big supporter of ID cards, even voting for a Bill to introduce them as recently as January 2002 along with Lib Dem colleagues. - Kevin Popper, Redcar.

WHO said this: "...And instead of wasting hundreds of millions of pounds on compulsory ID cards as the Tory right demand, let that money provide thousands of extra police officers on the beat in our local communities."

Answer: Tony Blair at the Labour Party Conference in 1995.

Mr Blair's comment came some ten years after he insisted in his election address that remaining in what was then the Common Market was bad for British jobs.

It would appear that our Mr Blair has a serious change of mind every ten years, mind you, his next door neighbour would argue that the PM's U-turns more frequent than that. - Peter Troy, Sedgefield.

DARLINGTON REDEVELOPMENT

THE proposals to knock down the town hall and create a new one in exchange for permission to build a supermarket are inappropriate and a waste of opportunity for the council taxpayers of Darlington.

The council is in the midst of changing North Road. It has instigated a traffic study to relieve the current congestion. And there are proposals to improve the A66. West Auckland and Woodlands Roads, which are already heavily congested, face potential increase in congestion with the new college.

Building a huge supermarket in the middle of Darlington will act as a magnet for further traffic congestion.

I can only say that Darlington is going the same way as York, where it became a nightmare to travel from one part to the other after the superstores were built.

The leading politicians on the council seem to have no idea how to proceed or deal with major schemes and lack a bit of forward thinking or appreciation of the issues.

They should put all schemes on hold and carry out an independent wide-ranging review to investigate the best way forward for the benefit of the council taxpayers for once. - Colin Telfer, Darlington.

Weardale RAILWAY

DAVID Thompson, (Echo, Jan 10) refers to Weardale councillors backing the railway project.

No-one objects to a company wanting to operate a train service and employing people, but had local businesses had £1.5m given in handouts they could expand, and I am sure they would not owe substantial debts to other local businesses that this operation does.

Also, it is all very well people from outside Weardale telling us what is good for us, but it is certainly something I am not prepared to tolerate from anybody.

What I want is what is best for our community, and this does not necessarily mean playing with an adult train set, which is based on subsidies constantly.

We require proper employment for people of the Dale and also the youngsters who live there, who will be seeking employment in the future. - County Councillor John Shuttleworth, Durham County Council.