20/11/04

The money could be well spent on building a new bus station where all town and long distance buses can move from, also getting business into the empty shops.

Councillors want to remember when voting time comes around who puts them on the council.

So please listen to the townspeople, and leave High Row as it is. - M Chisman, Darlington.

HUNTING

WITH all the crime and anti-social behaviour there is around, I would have thought that MPs had more important things on their minds than foxhunting. - RJ Walters, Whitby.

FOREIGN POLICY

THESE two paragons of virtue, human decency and compassion, George Bush and Tony Blair, have been preening themselves before the world's media.

They are so consumed by their own importance yet there is not an ounce of humility between them.

The full horror of Fallujah is now becoming known and the Red Crescent says it is a humanitarian disaster.

And while these dreadful events are going on, albeit primarily by the US military, what do we hear from our illustrious churchmen - absolutely nothing. Have you ever heard such a deafening silence?

To those who espouse terrorism we can now add the names of President Bush and Mr Blair.

But what of our own country? Mr Blair has dragged us through the mire of dirty politics and practically succeeded in dehumanising the nation.

Labour MPs have been bullied into submission and keep quiet rather than be thrown out at the next election.

What does an election matter when we are complicit in the destruction of another country?

The Tory Party sent Margaret Thatcher into political oblivion and so must we with Mr Blair.

He is tainted beyond redemption by his lavish adherence to the brutal policies of Bush in Iraq and the Middle East in general.

My message to Labour MPs is quite simple: get rid of Mr Blair and restore some respectability to our country. - Hugh Pender, Darlington.

AFRICA

MUCH of the world is in the state it is in because of the character of its ruling elites. The people who compose those elites came over here in large numbers when they were young, at our expense, to study medicine, engineering etc.

Instead, they spent their time chatting to their left-wing chums (the intellectual riff-raff with whom our colleges and universities appear to be stuffed) and at the latter's persuasion, reading the works of Marx and Lenin.

So, when they went home, they were even less fit for honest work than when they came and so they became politicians.

The rest is history, and now the situation in much of Africa can be summed up in three words: tyranny, terror, starvation.

As for the blame for this catastrophe, with its limitless consequences in terms of human suffering, I place it squarely where it belongs: not on us but on the left.

The left has been a potent source of corruption throughout history and it still is. - T Kelly, Crook.

FIREWORKS

FIREWORKS have had their day. Most people are now tired and fed up of the nightly bangs and screeches that are the signs that a further act of anti-social behaviour is taking place.

On the night which was meant for fireworks, irresponsible householders used the occasion to get rid of their old mattresses and kitchen cabinets, instead of using the councils' free removal services, by handing them over to roaming gangs of teenagers, busy building illegal bonfires. Don't forget - fires are dangerous and there should be a responsible adult nearby. Ha, ha!

After the first few fireworks have been lit, young eyes glaze over with boredom and the slightly older look for ways to adapt their use as a weapon of intimidation or general nuisance.

Why stand and watch a firework crackle harmlessly away when you can be setting fire to people's hallways or garden sheds? And if somebody dies in a fire, that's a bonus.

At a time when the focus is on curbing criminal and anti-social behaviour on our streets, it is totally absurd to allow this 'tradition' to continue. - D Brearley, Middlesbrough.

FIRE SERVICE

ON November 4, the voters of the North-East indicated by a majority of over three-to-one that they wanted nothing to do with the Government's regionalisation policies.

And yet within two weeks, John Prescott and Nick Raynsford are back with a proposal to regionalise the fire service.

Firemen and their brigade chiefs know only too well that that these proposals will reduce operational efficiency, put lives at risk and will only save less than a penny per week per person.

Perceptive politicians will have picked up the strong message from the North-East referendum that the electorate is fed up with the centralisation of power in Westminster and Brussels that has been pursued by successive governments over the past 30 years.

What is wanted is the return of control of public services to local government by local politicians answerable to local voters.

The political party that puts this at the front of its general election manifesto will find itself connecting to the non-voters of the past and reaping the benefit.

The boneheads that insist in pursuing the failed centralist policies of the past will be buried. - Judith Wallace, Whitley Bay.

ROAD SAEFTY

IN response to the recent coroner's report on accidents at the A689/Stockton Road junction in Sedgefield Village, it should be noted that the population of Sedgefield has consistently, since the A689 upgrade, called upon Durham County Council to take action to make the junction safe.

All requests have been dismissed by DCC, which even on occasion, refused to have discussions with Sedgefield Town Council and other relevant bodies.

Is there an optimum number of deaths and injuries before DCC will take any action?

DCC has clearly forgotten some of their responsibilities to the communities which it serves.

The coroner called for the sealing off of the junction. This would be a great inconvenience to the village and would cause traffic problems in other areas.

There are two very simple solutions to the problem which have been repeatedly requested: traffic lights or a roundabout.

Both cost money, but the A689 was completed several hundred pounds under budget (so there was money to use) and the "obelisk" (at Oldares on the A689) which nobody other than DCC wanted, cost £50,000.

It would seem that making a dangerous road junction safe and preventing deaths, injuries and distress does not carry the same priority as illuminating the county boundary. When will DCC listen to its residents? - Julia Bowles, Sedgefield.