20/07/04

Mr Blunkett's reasoning was that, although not personally responsible, the Chief Constable was head of an organisation in which there had been a failure in the collection and passing on of intelligence. The Home Secretary thought that the Chief Constable should take responsibility for this and resign. Does this apply to his own Prime Minister? - Barry Wood, Edmondsley, Co Durham.

BY-ELECTIONS

THE significance of last week's by-election results in Leicester and Birmingham is that, in mid-term, the Tories came third in seats they had hoped to win.

The obvious lessons are that a Liberal Democrat vote is no longer a wasted vote, and that those who have used this argument in the past will now have it visited upon them! - Peter Freitag, Darlington.

TELEVISION

I FAIL to see how your reviewer Hayley Gyllenspetz (Last Night's TV, Echo, July 1) could find comedy in Steph locking her friend Shelly in a cupboard. Steph has always bullied Shelley and anyone else who gets in her way. I wonder if anyone who is bullied by their so-called friend or their manager at work finds it funny. - G Graham, Darlington.

FEED THE WORLD

ALMOST daily, we hear of hundreds and thousands of people having to receive food from the United Nations because they live in such arid areas they cannot grow enough to support themselves.

Often they are herded into these desert areas by civil war and tribal conflict, as in Sudan.

The super-rich Western economies can build oil and gas pipelines over countless miles. Surely they could build water pipelines to create irrigated areas for these people.

This would be better than toying with debt relief which does not really benefit ordinary people but, in some cases, encourages corruption among those in power. - Hugh Pender, Darlington.

HUGH PENDER

DOES Hugh Pender know everything (HAS, July 9)? He does not like Americans, now he's having a go at the English for supporting their footballers and their tennis players.

Let the Wimbledon crowd support Tim Henman - they are only enjoying themselves.

If Tim were playing an Aussie in Oz, the Aussies would do the same. Does Mr Pender like anyone? Or, more importantly, does he ever have a laugh at his very biased opinions? - Joyce Rutter, Richmond.

DANGERS

WHEN are we going to have legislation outlawing airguns and catapults? There is not legitimate use for these dangerous weapons. How many more children and animals will lose an eye? - R Brown, Newton Aycliffe.

DARLINGTON TOILETS

DARLINGTON council hopes to increase the volume of tourists visiting the town, but I would suggest that it takes a close look at the town's toilet facilities.

After 7pm toilet facilities are non-existent as the ones under the market are closed.

I wrote to the council leader about this and the reply was that people could use the Cornmill centre, but these are often closed.

What about when late night buses arrive in town? I dread to think what visitors must think about our town.

Come on Darlington council: pedestrianisation yes, but also some modern toilets. - G Peeke, Darlington.

RACISM

AS a student in 1970, I had a temporary job as a warehouseman in Wolverhampton. The local MP, Enoch Powell, had recently made his infamous "rivers of blood" speech, and the favourite tea-break pastime was to complain bitterly about the local Asian population.

The only dissenters were myself and a German friend, who had been once been a member of the Hitler Youth. He had spent most of the war as a prisoner, and settled in England afterwards. He said: "It makes me so sad to hear them talk like this. It is exactly how we used to talk about the Jews before the war."

Our workmates complained, without any justification, about "Pakis coming over here and stealing our jobs", but were willing to work with someone who was not only an immigrant, but an ex-Nazi and a former enemy. They even expected him to join them in their vitriolic grumbling. Something to do with skin colour, perhaps?

Sadly, it seems not much has changed. It was racism which underpinned the Third Reich, and led to the holocaust - the most brutally systematic attempt at total genocide ever undertaken. Such racism has little political power in our country these days, but it still survives, and constantly seeks new scapegoats. - Pete Winstanley, Durham.

PETE WINSTANLEY

PETE Winstanley imagines that only a few people do not want multi-cultural society (HAS, July 10).

Why does he support a policy which will inevitably lead to the English people being dispossessed of their country? This is what multi-culture means. Does he think this will benefit the English people?

Mr Winstanley is of the political left wing. If the English want to preserve a homeland for their descendants let us hope a left wing government does not get elected in the forthcoming general election to continue its devastation of England and its repression of the English people. - Timothy Addams, Hartlepool.

CONGESTION

BECAUSE the Government has got away with two toll roads, there are plans to toll all roads. It would be a political mistake to underestimate the long-suffering motorist, taxed to the hilt.

Since the 1960s, when the M1 and A1M were opened, there has not been the road building that our businesses require. It has been mostly tinkering with existing roads. I'm afraid our small country will have to put up with a certain amount of congestion, or alternatively somehow try and reduce the record numbers who live here. Or build some more roads. - Fred Atkinson, Shincliffe.

ROYAL MAIL

IS it any wonder the Royal Mail gets slagged off so much?

I recently sent off 11 competition entries on postcards. To my amazement they all arrived back on my doorstep.

My cards have a picture on one side. The other side is divided into two: on one half is the stamp and the address the card is going to; on the other half is my competition answer and my address. I believe this is standard.

Unfortunately, Darlington sorting office just cannot get it right.

I wanted to send them some drawings showing how a postcard is laid out, along with a new sorting office motto: "Deliver to address nearest stamp".

I put them in a proper envelope and took it to the sub-sorting office in Bishop Auckland to find out who sorts my mail.

But they could not give me an address in Darlington so I could post it! I was amazed!

It was probably a good thing, because if they had given me an address, it would only have been returned to me marked "Address Unknown." - JA Scott, Hunwick.