18/11/04

The Jenkins Commission was set up and reported but there was no referendum.

In 2001 the Government was re-elected having pledged to hold a review of the method of electing MPs in the light of the experience of other elections and the recommendations of the Jenkins Commission.

It was expected that this inquiry would be announced in the coming week. However, it has been reported that plans have been blocked by senior Cabinet members.

It seems that John Reid and John Prescott felt it unacceptable to go ahead, regardless of the manifesto promise. David Blunkett and Jack Straw also opposed the plan.

Whatever the views of cabinet ministers, it is concerning when manifesto pledges are broken. As we know, it is not the only manifesto pledge to have been forgotten as the Government beds in and expects a third term of office as its right.

It is said that Lord Falconer has appealed to Tony Blair to allow the inquiry to go ahead. There is still a case, in the interests of modernising British democracy, for the decision to be changed and it is hoped that Tony Blair will overrule his colleague's veto.

By contrast, in Scotland, the Liberal Democrats in partnership government have kept a manifesto promise and pushed Scottish Labour to introduce fair votes (proportional representation) for the Scottish Council elections in 2007. - Jacqueline Bell, PPC Liberal Democrats, Richmond.

IRAQ

YOUR recent editorial, in which you say that George Bush will not be a "lame duck president", may well be true.

But it's a pity you didn't state that George Bush and the millionaire cronies in government who back him, are a threat to world peace.

In the two Gulf Wars (1991 and 2003) 100,000 Iraqi men, women and children have been either killed or maimed; the Bush family (father and son) have played a leading role in this mass extermination.

Using terror to fight terror is nothing new, but those in power claim that they are bringing "freedom" to the Iraqi people, whose mothers mourn their dead children - dead at the hands of British and American armed forces. But who cares?

To listen to the politicians, the British and American dead in this tragedy are of much more importance that the Iraqi dead, and what compounds the tragedy is that Messrs Bush and Blair claim to be followers of Jesus Christ. - Rev John Stephenson, Sunderland.

WE have 30 Members of Parliament in this area who collect £4m a year.

Most of them will rejoice in their eventual achievement in banning foxhunting.

I remember Mussolini's pilots mowing down Abyssinian tribesmen waving spears. Nothing changes.

An RAF friend recalls being in Jordan in 1953. Refugees loaded tins with sand to make a walled shelter. Tree branches and a rug were the roof. RAF personnel kept away from the border to escape being shot.

Today many residents have fled from Fallujah but the aged and infirm, unable to travel, are captives and liable to be blown to pieces by cluster bombs. The US troops are using these weapons to massacre, in their own words, a foe who killed their comrades.

This foe consists of snipers moving from, in the rubble, one derelict house to another. Thousands have been mutilated and killed, mosques damaged and civilians killed by US weapons of most destruction.

I await a Labour MP to break off from fox celebrations with a view on the slaughter of humans, which will continue until the January election. - Harry Whitton, Thirsk.

WAR GRAVES

I AM sickened after reading the story about the war graves that have been turned into a landfill site in France.

To me it seems like another premeditated act to show their disrespect to the brave men who fought to save their country.

My grandfather fought for the Durham Light Infantry in the Second World War and thankfully survived, but had the worst happened I would have hoped his sacrifice would have been appreciated.

But maybe that is too much to expect from the ever forgetful French. - Ian Laybourn, Evenwood.

FIREWORKS

I DO hope that the fireworks season for 2004 has now ceased.

It seems to have lasted for at least a month in my area. We had the usual youths wandering the streets letting fireworks off, not causing problems, or so they thought.

Then last week, peace and quiet, no fireworks. So on Saturday evening, we went out for three hours. On returning home at 10.30pm we found the kitchen in a state where one of the dogs had tried to dig her way out, and both dogs were distressed. I just knew what to put it down to - fireworks.

Sure enough, I later found out that there had been around two hours of loud fireworks in our area. My poor dogs must have been driven demented with fright and worry, and we had so wrongly assumed that, over a week after fireworks night, no-one would be setting them off.

I've nothing against fireworks. I love them, but there is a time for fireworks, and that time is fireworks night, not weeks before and after.

I heartily wish that laws would be tighter than they are.

I would also implore people to be more thoughtful - when you are thinking of buying fireworks and letting them off, especially when it is not fireworks night, think of the animals that are so terrified of them. - Ellen Carlin, Carrville, Durham.

FRED WEALANDS

MY family and I were saddened to learn of the passing of Mr Fred Wealands. Please may we express our sincere condolences to his family and friends.

Mr Wealands's letters in Hear All Sides were always a breath of fresh air, full of down-to-earth good common sense, based upon sound and interesting opinions and understanding.

My own particular appreciation remains to this day for the kind support he gave to the Skerne Park Road Safety campaign of the 1990s in his correspondence to this readers' letter page of The Northern Echo.

Mr Wealands was a good and true gentleman, and his brilliant contributions to the Echo will be sorely and sadly missed. - Megan Bethany Robinson, Darlington.

SMOKING

YOUR correspondent, Mr Walters (HAS, Nov 16), has, like a lot of smokers, missed the point of any proposed smoking ban.

He can smoke as much as he likes, although I hope he considers stopping.

What is objected to is the effect the poisonous exhalations have on the rest of us in enclosed public spaces. There now appears to be no doubt that passive smoking is very injurious to health. It's time it was banned. - Harry Watson, Darlington.