11/12/04

I am writing to you as in no time at all it will be Christmas again.

As you should already know, I believe the Spirit of Christmas should last all year.

Do you know what the Spirit of Christmas is, everyone? It is in everything you say and do and so you should always try to say good things, do good things and no matter what others may say, always try your best.

I am sure you try your best all the time and you will be good (most of the time anyway!).

I send you my love and look forward to seeing you all at Christmas.

All my love - Santa Claus, Santa's Home, The North Pole, Top of the World.

Editor's Note: All correspondence to Hear All Sides must include an address and, ideally, a phone number so we can verify the authenticity of the writer. We have tried to contact Mr Claus, but he appears to be very busy at the moment. Even though his letter has a Darlington postmark, we still believe it is authentic.

MINERS' STRIKE

JOE Wellthorpe (HAS, Dec 4) must be Maggie's man. I am so angry about his letter I could write three books.

I am 91 in three weeks time and a miner's granddaughter, daughter and wife.

What an insult his letter is. Has he ever been down a mine, let alone worked eight hours in one?

I would love to put him down one in County Durham. He would be in a state of shock before the cage reached the bottom. To crawl into a very low seam with a pick and all he would get for his pay would be what came off his pick or shovel.

During the war get washed (no hot water on tap) and be out all night in the Home Guard.

Has he never head of the Durham Light Infantry? Where did he think they came from? Most of them were from mining stock.

I give up before I have a heart attack. - Mrs D Cheesmond, Co Durham.

DURING the miners' strike I was a member of the ambulance service and I saw the "reasonable force" used by the police as stated by Mr Wellthorpe (HAS, Dec 4).

We picked up injured miners off the picket lines to take to hospital. They had been injured by trampling police horses and batons.

He also states the miners were trying to bring the country to its "industrial knees". They were fighting to save the mining industry and their jobs from the Tories, who were hell-bent on closing the mines to do away with a strong union as the Tories don't believe in unions.

As for the miners striking during the Second World War, I worked as a miner during the war and my colliery never came out. My wage was two pounds ten shillings for a six-day week, eight hours-a-day working all hours day and night. Mr Wellthorpe also states mining is an unskilled job. A miner is a skilled man and has to adapt to different jobs in the mine.

I wonder if Mr Wellthorpe has been down a mine. He would see coal seams 18 inches high in some mines, men lying on their sides for hours, sometimes in water, getting coal to keep his fire going.

Of course, with the ego Mr Wellthorpe has, I don't believe he would get his head in 18 inches.

He also says our armed services were giving their lives to keep us miners free.

What about all the miners who were killed working in the mines to keep the factories and industry going during the war and are still dying from injury and dirt-lined lungs today?

I was proud to be a miner - to me they are the salt of the earth. - H Reed, Durham.

PITY the unfortunate Mick Terrans, former leader of Durham County Council, who was damned by the praise of Tony Blair (Echo, Dec 4).

We all know what the county council did for the pitmen during the 1984-85 strike. Now with the beatification of Mr Terrans, the council's reputation is assured.

I cannot recall the National Union of Miners arguing that exhausted pits had to be kept open. In fact, the Durham Miners' Association had co-operated with pit closures.

It was the collieries with vast reserves that were being sacrificed by Margaret Thatcher (Tony Blair invited this woman to meet him after his first victory to seek her advice). - John Beech, Kelloe, Durham.

WINDFARMS

JOHN Prescott has advised councillors to ignore opposition to wind turbines (Echo, Aug 14). In other words to hell with the people. Local councils are being bullied until they meet targets for renewable energy.

This was evident when we attended a Sedgefield Council planning meeting at Spennymoor on October 12 to hear an application for four wind turbines to be erected at Trimdon Grange/Town Kelloe.

There are 400 more of these 76 metre high monstrosities to be erected in the North-East alone.

Two planning applications were heard in less than two hours - not long when you consider the impact the turbines can have on people's lives. What a farce.

Many years ago, two reasons given for opposition to a bungalow here were that it would interfere with the skyline and it would be detrimental to the countryside. What do turbines do?

As one resident at the meeting put it, if that's democracy God help us.

What a shock for Mr Prescott when the people of the North-East gave a resounding no to a regional assembly - now that was democracy. - N Staff, Durham.

EDUCATION

"EDUCATION, education, education" is the Labour Party's rallying maxim for the 21st century. However, to my reasonably-educated mind it is totally misjudged.

Has the world got much better for education? I don't think it has. For a start, on a very basic human level, who needs the horrors of exams?

Better education has greatly contributed to the demise of the family unit, with parents and children living hundreds of miles apart.

In the case of higher education, many people get carried away with their often pampered egos.

This planet certainly hasn't benefited from the man with the intellect to split the atom and the use of nuclear power.

To me, the most poignant effect of education is being felt on the centuries-old ways of life in our remote dales. Education is wiping out folklore and dialects at an alarming rate - all because people are better educated and therefore set their sights higher than before.

Finally, education has given us the likes of Tony Blair and George Bush.

I rest my case. - Ken Jackson, Northallerton.