31/07/04

This country has the best forces in the world and our area has a proud tradition of being part of these forces.

It is OK for ministers and civil servants in London who have never worn a uniform to say that, because of new methods of warfare, we do not require such numbers, but if you ask the troops on the ground, you will get a different story.

We are already over-stretched with global commitments. We need to be able to respond rapidly to any event, anywhere in the world. I firmly believe that after these cuts we will not be able to do this without assistance from our "allies" over the water - yet again.

These cutbacks also have a detrimental effect on servicemen's morale and on family lives with most attachments worldwide being some six months long. I know people volunteer for this type of life, but they are proud to serve their Queen and Country - but at what price to their family?

If the threat to amalgamate our local battalion, the Green Howards, becomes a reality, I will be one of the first "over the top" to do what is necessary to save it. This battalion has a proud history over many hundreds of years of loyal service to the monarch and country, and it has the tradition of being a family unit - which is the envy of many in the world. - Bill Clarke, Chairman, Guisborough Town Council.

THE cutbacks will have a terminal effect on the name of the Duke of Wellington's Regiment (West Riding) which will be amalgamated with other Yorkshire regiments by 2007/8.

The 1st Battalion returned from Iraq in July last year and goes back in October. This is 14 months, during which time the soldiers have been away from barracks and home for four months. Can you imagine the strain on families and relationships that such a level of separation causes?

The second issue is the affinity of the Duke's to its local county and recruiting area. The soldiers have been drawn from the West Riding since the 18th century and over those years we have forged strong and enviable ties with the cities and towns. Soldiers that come from the same locality, town or street, bind much more closely together.

We are truly a family regiment and this has been our strength for many years.

A new regiment will have recruitment and identity difficulties that experience shows will take 20 years to resolve.

I and many in the regiment think it is possible to preserve the identities of the famous regimental names and we believe the MoD has not tried hard enough.

During the consultation period, I shall be listening to the views of the young officers and soldiers who come from your readership area. It will be their views on their future that will carry the day. - Major General Sir Evelyn Webb-Carter, Colonel RHQ Duke of Wellington's Regiment, Halifax.

NATIONAL SERVICE

TONY Blair says the anti-social behaviour problems started with the liberal attitudes of the 1960s. What rubbish these people talk. Now it is no longer fashionable to attack single parent families, it's the Sixties (Echo, July 20).

I am a January 1938 variety, brought up in a single parent home because dad, after Dunkirk, kept going away to different parts of the world to join in scraps with his mates. He didn't seem to settle down until 1945-46. Until then, our upbringing was left to mother.

When dad finally stopped scrapping he got a job on the Aycliffe trading estate and moved the family to Newton Aycliffe. In 1953 he secured a job for me as an indentured apprentice as a plater with a firm of steel fabricators.

When 1959 arrived and I had served my time, National Service called. In those days all males between 18 and 21 were required to do two years with the armed forces.

It was another right-wing leader, Harold Macmillan, who did away with National Service in 1960, much to the delight of many a young man, but now identified by Mr Blair as the start of the moral decline of Britain. Doesn't that say something for the value of National Service?

Mr Blair should realise that most of what is wrong with the country can be put down to the actions of those elected by the people to act in their best interests, and not by the people themselves. - Peter Dolan, Newton Aycliffe.

Hartlepool

LABOUR must hope that by the time the Hartlepool by-election is held, its difficult issues will have passed. However, the reason for its defeat in Leicester South and the close shave in Birmingham Hodge Hill was not just Iraq.

My canvassing in both areas showed that voters were also concerned with Labour's record on health, education and public services.

The delay for the by-election will be an advantage for the Liberal Democrat by-election machinery. A short campaign in Birmingham saw a 26 per cent swing to the LibDems which brought them within 500 votes of a second victory at the recent by-elections.

The LibDems will again be the clear challengers in Hartlepool. In the 2004 local elections, Labour support fell to 31 per cent with the Liberal Democrats on 23 per cent and the Tories way behind on 12 per cent.

Interesting times ahead. - Jacqueline Bell, Prospective LibDem Parliamentary Candidate for Richmond, Great Ayton.

Eaglescliffe

I AM 16 years old and have lived in Eaglescliffe all my life. Eaglescliffe is a lovely place, and part of its charm is the old Victorian houses on Yarm Road.

The developers now seem to threaten the whole environment. I have seen old houses being replaced by blocks of flats and I am appalled at what is happening as folk cash in on the boom in house prices.

Now it is Copsewood under threat. Copsewood was the first house built on The Avenue. It is an old house with gardens of particular charm and character. It has been a very good family home for generations and could continue to be so, except now developers would like to demolish it and put 47 dwellings in its place.

Goodness knows what effect so many dwellings would have on one small corner.

Surely it is time that we put more value on these really good traditional homes and protected them for generations to come. - Frances Campbell, Eaglescliffe.

GLOBAL WARMING

THE first H-bomb, Mike, was exploded at 7.15am local time on November 1, 1952. The mushroom cloud was eight miles across and 27 miles high. The canopy was 100 miles wide. Radioactive mud fell out of the sky followed by heavy rain. Eighty million tons of earth were vaporised. Mike was the first megaton yield explosion.

In the 1950s and 1960s, both sides in the Cold War developed and tested H-bombs with yields of up to 100 megatons. Tests were conducted in atmosphere, in oceans and underground. The after-effects caused by thousands of additional thermonuclear tests still exist today.

Now governments accuse you and me of causing climate change through global warming! - C Fairman, Darlington.