08/01/05

I'd like to bring some facts to his attention. Firstly, whether he likes it or not, Britain has always had closer historical ties with Europe than with the United States.

As far as our so-called 'special relationship' with the United States is concerned, our constant ally, to use the words of Mr Pascoe, has dragged us (with our own Government's connivance) into a legally and morally unjustifiable war with Iraq, and its support during the Falklands conflict was half-hearted at best and non-existent during Suez.

The decline in Britain's fishing fleet has more to do with massive over-fishing in Britain's coastal waters than any malevolent plotting by Europe. Similarly, the decline in farming has more to do with the string of health scares over salmonella in eggs, foot-and-mouth disease, mad cow disease etc.

His histrionics about the incorporation into English law of the European Convention on Human Rights via the Human Rights Act, seem to assume that we should protect democracy by making the country less democratic and he can't see that it is not the terrorists who pose the greatest threat to democracy, but the power of the state over its people.

And finally, by admitting Turkey into the EU, we make the Turkish people live by the same moral, legal and political precepts as the rest of us, imbuing in them ideas about democracy, freedom, the rule of the law, religious toleration and civil rights.

And does Mr Pascoe really believe that Turkey is the only country with religious extremism? If he wants to see religious bigotry and intolerance, he should go to his spiritual home, the US. - Martin Jones, Spennymoor.

TSUNAMI

HOW I do agree with Peter Mullen's column (Echo, Jan 4) with regard to the BBC's totally insensitive handling of the coverage of the appalling disaster in the Indian Ocean.

It is sensational journalism at its worst. The scenes of BBC reporters walking among bodies, filming, almost salaciously, mass burials, is totally unacceptable. Have you been bereaved? Would you like to see such pictures? You can watch such stuff on the more lurid TV channels - if that is your taste.

The whole terrible thing is too appalling for many of us to contemplate. This was not a conflict to see who could kill who for power, oil or any other commodity. It was a freak act of nature - totally unexpected with consequences which defy belief.

To make sensationalism out of it is disgusting.

All our thoughts, prayers and practical help must be focused on these innocent people.

The BBC should pull its overpaid journalists out of there and let the humanitarian organisations get on with their work. It is not reporting a war. It is hurting and degrading suffering people, people who have nothing.

When the BBC has pulled out, the people will be picking up the pieces, rebuilding, caring and the rest. - Marie Garrood, Sedgefield.

I WAS dismayed, but not surprised, when I read of the theft of a collecting bucket in aid of the tsunami disaster.

The authorities should have known of the possible danger and have taken action to warn shops, stores and other establishments of this risk.

As we all know, there are in this country, as in all others, quite a number who will neither work or want to and who get by on state handouts or by unlawful acts in an effort to gain money and are without any morality.

Remembering a lecture of almost six decades ago in this field of law, the regulations on street and house collections, in fact any public collection of money, require sealed containers, labels and identity cards.

I understand that the enthusiasm, the quick generosity of the public did not allow for this course of action.

The awful fact is the money given willingly with sympathy has fallen into the hands of unfeeling rats.

Finally, what will happen to the culprits if caught? Will they be taken to the affected areas to recover the bodies, dig graves, feed the living, clean the debris? No I doubt it. - Name and address supplied.

RELIEF funds raised in the UK have reached over £100m. And the stricken countries' national debts may be forgotten if Gordon Brown gets his way.

This would allow countries to be rebuild, giving these people again the hope that is a God-given right.

This, from a nation that pulled together to defeat Nazi domination in the world.

How can followers of bin Laden not feel just a little stupid when the West is seen to be trying to give them peace and security with democracy and rebuilding their countries? - Bernard McCormick, Darlington.

JUST how sick can some people be to steal collections made for tsunami victims?

If these people are ever caught, they and others like them should be flogged to the bone and no questions asked. - TE Cook, Bishop Auckland.

DARLINGTON TOWN CENTRE

WHY is it that Darlington Council doesn't take any notice of what people actually want?

It does not matter how many signatures on petitions you get or how many letters people write, the council will just go ahead anyway. How can the council get away with it?

Darlington town centre is different, has character and is unique and should be left as it is. Everyone you speak to agrees.

I would like to know who is actually going to be paying for these hideous and destructive alterations?

Perhaps we should all speak with our council tax, then the council might listen. - Tracey Walker, Darlington.

EVOLUTION

IN reply to Eric Gendle (HAS, Dec 29), the evolutionists' explanation of how new species appear is that random genetic changes, ie mutations, occasionally give the individuals affected an advantage in the struggle for existence; and the accumulation of such mutations in these favoured individuals produces new species. Such beneficial mutations are rare but, given the vast expanse of geologic time, sooner or later inevitable.

What the evolutionists forget, of course, is that mutations are almost invariably harmful and the chances of a beneficial one occurring are, at the level of complex creatures at any rate, infinitesimally tiny. The chance of millions of them occurring, on which the evolutionists' case depends, is not just practically, but absolutely, nil.

No, the creationists may not have the whole story and indeed, unlike the evolutionists, have never claimed to - but they are on the right track, and any student of natural history who rejects them in favour of Darwin and his followers is barking up a very wrong tree indeed. - T Kelly, Crook.