23/09/04

This so-called "entertainment" undermines the moral foundations of our nation and pushes thousands of people into lives of crime and debauchery.

Furthermore, it invites young children to draw the wrong conclusions about what it takes to be a success in life.

Please, please stop media brainwashing now, Mr Blair, and save our society. - Aled Jones, Bridlington.

REGIONS

THE borders of most English regions are based on a war-time map used by the 'father of the EU', Monsieur Monet, when engaged in ration distribution.

John Prescott was on the Council of Europe when he first had his dream of a North-East assembly.

John Major was compelled to agree to regionalism after being threatened by Jacques Delors that our subsidiary grants would be minimal otherwise. This fact was not widely circulated.

Recognising that the euro would cause difficulties in places where the interest rate was unsuitable, a regional subsidiary grant, as opposed to a national grant, was deemed the solution. All established EU countries have regions with a development agency, government office, and assembly. All have representatives on the EU council of regions.

The EU is clearly behind regionalism. We are treated with manipulative contempt when regional quangos are given as the reason to endorse these changes with a yes vote.

Strengthening regions automatically weakens our central government. As this power is not transferred to ourselves but to manifesto-free, regional representatives, we are importing further corporate or fascist style government. - Charlotte Bull, UK Independence Party, Darlington.

TOURISM

MY daughter and I visited Durham last Friday to do a little shopping. We found ourselves having to visit the ladies' toilets in Millburngate shopping centre.

Never again. Three cubicles were out of order. Others were dirty, smelly, and without toilet paper.

The outside area was not much better. The floor strewn with paper and rubbish, and again not very clean.

These toilets are in bad need of a makeover. I can but wonder what visitors and tourists think when they visit our lovely county, the wonders of the Castle and Cathedral, and the bigger spectacle of the public conveniences. - Stella Barnett, Sherburn Hill.

POLITICAL CORRECTNESS

TO most people, the term "political correctness" (PC) has come to refer to generally over-the-top efforts to promote tolerance and equal rights by modifying language.

Some have been reasonable, eg rejecting offensive words like "nigger", or substituting "firefighter" for "fireman" as more women took up the job.

Others have been silly, or just jokes. No-one ever seriously spoke of "personhole covers" or referred to bald people as "follically challenged".

Other examples were ficticious. The supposed banning of black bin-liners and the singing of "baa, baa, black sheep" were stories invented by right-wing tabloid journalists to discredit "loony left" London councils.

The journalist Gary Younge argues that the concept of PC has now given reactionaries "a chance to ridicule and dismiss a set of values they never believed in in the first place", ie anything which embraces diversity or enhances equality.

However, for some on the Right, the definition of PC is even broader. It just means anything they disagree with. - Pete Winstanley, Durham.

DARLINGTON TOWN CENTRE

I WISH to express my utter disgust at the plans made by Darlington Borough Council to dispose of part of Darlington's history, namely the granite balustrades and the steps on to the High Row.

Whereas I can see the problem the disabled have with the steps, surely there is another way around this without getting rid of part of our heritage.

Would having a ramp instead and keep the handrails etc, be enough?

I am behind the Civic Trust in this matter and feel very strongly about it.

Soon towns like ours will have no historic features left, and will be dull, flat pedestrian areas, with no character at all. - Ann Timmins, Darlington.

OUR town councillors are planning to remove the Victorian features of the High Row and place them elsewhere.

This, they say, will improve the area and is part of the pedestrianisation scheme.

It is a great pity they did not make these plans publicly known, then the people of Darlington could have told them to leave it alone.

Remove the cars and buses to make things safer for shoppers, but do not create a featureless landscape which will be a magnet for bikes and skateboards. We already have the Cornmill which is a clone of every shopping centre in England.

Councillors are only the short-term custodians of the Town Hall. We will be left with the results of their mis-guided schemes when their political office has ceased.

Leave our town alone, give us character not wasteland. Maybe the Town Clock is on the move to Sainsbury's car park because it doesn't comply with modern standards. - Derek Hutchinson, Darlington.

IRAQ

HAVE the Government spin doctors decided that the foxhunting debate and its actions are a 'September 11 Good Day' to release the news of the possibility of more British troops being sent to the Iraq morass, to assist Mr Bush's election aim?

Before one more serviceman is sent, let's have a true and full debate on why we went to war.

The lives of our servicemen aren't in the same class as foxhunting. - R Harbron, Norton.

HUNTING

NORMAN Smith (HAS, Sept 20) is, I feel, a victim of yet more Labour spin.

The demonstrators who outsmarted House of Commons security last week were not mostly upper class. Otis Ferry might have more money than many of us, but so does David Beckham. Is he upper class?

Nor were these people violent. Noisy, yes.

The majority of people demonstrating in Parliament Square were not upper class, nor were they violent. They were merely determined to make their views known, something David Blunkett has not yet made illegal.

These people from the country don't want their way of life destroyed, nor do they want to lose their livelihood.

Precisely because so many of them are not upper class they need to work for their living, like most of us do.

So Mr Smith, condemn many things about last week, by all means. The behaviour of some of the police was appalling and unnecessarily brutal.

The reaction of many MPs bordered on the farcical and was a total over-reaction to an event that most of them were not even in the Chamber to witness.

Tony Blair has decided to force this unpopular measure through to the Statute Book, but demonstrated his lack of moral courage by failing to attend the House of Commons, even for the vote. - Derek Thornton, Crook.