01/12/04

Your Leader comment (Echo, Nov 25) rightly highlighted the plight of Zimbabweans who suffer appalling human rights abuses under Mugabe's regime.

In the furore over sport, thank goodness someone did not lose sight of the humanitarian issues.

Your comments were even more pertinent in the light of the Government's announcement that Zimbabwe is now considered a safe place to return failed asylum seekers.

You say the Government and the cricketing authorities should hang their heads in shame for their failure to take a stand. I, too, hang my head in shame for being part of a culture that has not only bowed to ill-informed public opinion and failed to help those seeking protection from brutal regimes like Mugabe's, but also places the interests of sport above the suffering of human beings. - Kath Sainsbury, Stockton-on-Tees.

HUNTING

I AM sick to death of remarks made by ignorant people about foxes being torn to shreds.

They should look into the facts. The fox is an animal that is classed as vermin. It has no predators. The hunt exists today more as a business needed by landowners in the control of foxes harming their stock.

Funds have to be raised to keep hounds and horses, employ kennelmen and hunt staff and finance their transport.

This is achieved by allowing the public to follow at a fee, but under strict rules. No one must ride past the fieldmaster, who keeps a distance from hounds so as not to interfere with their work.

People from all walks of life follow. Families and horse riders all just want a good ride out. Fit, healthy foxes are not threatened, mostly old, infirm or sick foxes are killed and in a few seconds.

There is no hunting when vixen have their young. Foxes shot or snared can take two to three days to die. Those gassed die gasping for air, unable to breathe. Orphaned cubs would starve to death. - Diana Davis, Bishop Auckland.

I HAVE been following the hunting debate with a great deal of interest ever since it raised its head. The Bill bans hunting wild animals with dogs, so presumably if your dog catches and kills a rat you are guilty of hunting. I don't suppose, for a minute, the Government even thought of it.

The Burns report quotes that 331,000 fallen animals are picked up each year by hunts. Therefore, presumably, farmers will have to pay for this collection because they are not allowed to bury them any more. This will no doubt mean a price rise in milk and meat will follow shortly.

Poisoning of foxes is illegal, as is gassing them; shooting with shotguns is not very good because this is more likely to wound, as opposed to a clean kill with a rifle.

The fox population is currently 231,000 and will triple each year, so therefore, in about two years time, it will have reached 2,079,000. There are already foxes roaming the Hundens Lane area of Darlington. - Jim S Hamer, Darlington.

HEALTH SERVICE

I WAS astonished to read David Potts' letter (HAS, Nov 26) claiming that "individual hospitals are not currently required to publish their MRSA infection rates in a comprehensive manner".

If he would care to punch in MRSA on the Internet, using the Google search engine, he will soon find the very comprehensive Department of Health's mandatory bacteraemia surveillance scheme data that lists every individual hospital trust in the country, giving its number of MRSA bacteraemia reports yearly for the past four years.

Whilst the data so presented gives much cause for concern, not least because of the widespread belief that there is considerable under reporting, he certainly has no grounds for claiming that the infection rates are not published. - Stafford Scholes, Esh Winning.

DARLINGTON TOWN CENTRE

TO my mind, the worst aspect of the plans for the new look High Row is the lack of public consultation.

In July, there was a small exhibition of the Darlington Pedestrian Heart plan in Queen Street for four days. It would have been better to have had a larger exhibition for a longer time in places such as the libraries, as has been the way in the past.

Also in July, a meeting was held in the Town Hall to present the plans to the Town Centre Forum and the Darlington Transport Forum. The presentation was poor: the slides were too small for the venue and the sound amplification was not switched on. I thought that some of the concerns expressed from the floor were answered patronisingly and without any show of understanding.

There have been many letters published in The Northern Echo expressing concern about the loss of the features, which, together with the Clock Tower and the Market Hall, characterise Darlington town centre and are part of our heritage.

A compromise has been suggested which would provide refurbishment and still retain the old characteristics. Let there be more discussion. - Dorothy C Lincoln, Darlington.

POPULATION

I AGREE with Bob Jarratt's recent correspondence that road congestion will never be resolved with an increasing overpopulation.

I wrote to my MP a few weeks ago on the subject. The reply was that extra workers were required to contribute to the pensions of the increased number of old people.

I replied that this will then require an exponential increase in population every 30 years as the extra workers retire. The reply was sustained, the logic was ignored.

What work is there for them anyway in this automated production-saturated age?

These facts should have been forseen years ago by ministry statistics and resources put aside from the new-found oil revenues to cover the "pension blip" increase of old people today. Will the media try to get this message across to all parties in parliament: "Look ahead for our children sake"? - Arthur Dinsdale, Marton.

JAGUAR

IT is a national disgrace that Jaguar is closing its Coventry plant and it is another nail in the coffin of this disgraceful Government, which ignores the wealth-creating companies but pays for all the overpaid bureaucrats and local government officials who have never done a day's work in their lives.

Jaguar should never have been allowed to be purchased by Ford when it is part of the cream of British manufacturing, but it is another case of treachery by Tony Blair and his cohorts to the politically-correct nonsense that these people adhere to.

Taxes, by means of National Insurance, council tax, and PAYE, is crippling hard-working people just to pay for Mr Blair and his lazy wasters. - Rob Richardson, Bishop Auckland.