14/07/04

As a paternal grandparent, I have seen over the last four years the family court system in action with its associated court service agency.

The bias exhibited by our judicial system has to be experienced to be believed.

Polite attempts by other pressure groups acting for fathers have achieved nothing over the past decade. Silly stunts they may be to attract publicity, but they harm no-one and to describe the demonstrators as irresponsible and acting like terrorists is, to say the least, hyperbole and missing the point.

Government action is ponderously slow and my efforts communicating with ministers via my local MP were enmeshed in prevarication and red tape.

Do please reconsider your comments. If the demonstrators have a just cause, as you quite rightly assert, why not ask yourself why do grown men have to act like that?

I have personally conducted a funeral service for a father who committed suicide because of a denial of access to his children - that reinforced my experience that urgent radical reform is needed of the family justice system in this country.

Compassion is needed, not self righteous criticism - ask Sir Bob Geldof. - George Rutter, Marton.

IRAQ

OF course Tony Blair should apologise for taking us to war over WMD (HAS, July 7).

He spoke in such a way before committing our country to war that many people, in fear of their lives, backed him.

He had us believing that chemical and other weapons would be showering down on us in the near future. We were to believe we were in desperate danger and only removing Saddam by force would save us. He was wrong, but I doubt he will ever admit it.

We will no doubt see exactly the same scare tactics used as he turns his attention to getting us to agree to the EU constitution.

We will be told how dreadful it will be for us, the end of life as we know it, if we don't sign up.

The millions of jobs he will claim will be lost, the friendship and trading opportunities we will sacrifice. Rot! He knows all this is no more true than the WMD, but he will still try to brainwash us into believing it.

Norway and Switzerland, for example, are hardly suffering from terminal decline by being out of the EU.

Let us hope for Britain it is once bitten, twice shy when we hear the scare tactics begin in earnest.

Mr Blair is a dab hand at spinning the truth in order to get his way. Fortunately, most of us are now on to his tricks and will resist. Britain deserves better than to be known as a mere small group of regions in Western Europe. - EA Moralee, Billingham.

TV DOCUMENTARIES

I WAS very interested to read Graham Keal's article on fly on the wall documentary film maker Paul Watson, who first gave us The Family in 1974 (Echo, July 7). It was a great television series.

At the head of the family, of course, was Margaret and I remember there were some fascinating verbal exchanges between her and her offspring.

The Press in the beginning did not like the programme, but later showed its appreciation by describing Margaret as the fount of all wisdom.

Paul Watson, too, of course, admired Margaret and when one of their conversations resulted in a slight disagreement, he capitulated by saying: "Oh, very well. I am duly admonished by Margaret." - LD Wilson, Guisborough.

SMOKING

FEATURE writers now may be too young to know of public houses having smoke rooms. Tobacco smoke still permeated the buildings, having a film of nicotine brown on every ceiling.

In 1943 I entered a cinema in Algeria. The audience was mainly men in smart Arab national dress. There was the impact of a clean pleasant atmosphere, no-one was smoking. A true revelation with the instant thought - why not in the UK?

When an ignorant UK serviceman lit a cigarette he was told at once to either stop what he was doing or to leave the building. No nonsense about defense de fumer in Algeria.

Here we are 60 years later dithering over something that affects the health of the whole country, not to mention the early deaths directly due to smoking. No comfortable instant deaths for those who progress from an inhaler to a nebuliser before the oxygen bottles and wheelchair, all because we hear 'No-one is going to stop me smoking,' from those who are addicted.

How very sick, stupid and so very expensive in so many different ways.

National leaders steer away from all this when they could give great service by insisting on an immediate ban of smoking in all public places.

Our youth should be told more often they will ruin their health and go downhill far too soon. They should stand up, think for themselves and not be led by the weak willed. More power to your elbow. - Tom Cockeram, Barwick-in-Elmet.

REGIONAL GOVERNMENT

IT beggars belief that the Government has not published the Bill setting out the exact powers of the proposed regional assembly (Echo, Jul 9) at the same time as it announced the day we are to vote on the issue, Thursday November 4.

The idea of some sort of regional assembly and what powers it would have has been going the rounds for years. In 1995, the Labour Party published a document on the issue. In May 2002, the Government published an official document. In recent months, public meetings have been held up and down the three regions addressed by various ministers.

Now we are in the middle of a massive publicity campaign, said to be costing £25m, expected to end in the middle of September.

At a recent meeting in Middlesbrough, John Prescott promised to publish the Bill by the end of July, but we still do not know what we are expected to vote for.

The must be some reason why the Government is keeping us all in the dark. - Stan Smith, South Shields.