15/5/04

Again, Darlington council comes up with the daft idea and no wonder it will be going to court.

Let's face facts. Up goes Joe Bloggs in front of the magistrates. Well now, let's see, has any member of the public reported you for bad or reckless driving? No. Then has any police officer pulled you up for driving offences? No. Has any taxi office any bad reports on you about your conduct of driving? No. So where is the problem and who is going to pay the costs again?

Let's face it, all taxi drivers know that if they do anything wrong they will go before the courts or the council with the right of appeal. So stop wasting public money and spend it on far better uses. - Name and address supplied.

REGIONAL GOVERNMENT

I am not surprised at Sir John Hall's support (Echo, May 11) for the proposed assembly.

It is a device of the North-East establishment, of which he is a pillar, to consolidate its grip on the region.

We need, therefore, to ask ourselves: do people like him really need more power than they enjoy already? And should we let ourselves be beguiled into handing it to them? No? Then that is how to vote in the referendum. - T Kelly, Crook.

IT was good to read that Sir John (I love the North-East so much that I just have to live in Spain) Hall was coming to save us once again. Wonderful news. T Dan Smith, Poulson and Cunningham did that years ago.

The MetroCentre is good for this area and I will give him that, but let's not forget his family kept the profits to buy more land to sell for more profit, and now someone wants to do the same on his doorstep, he has found his roots again.

Should anyone care to check they will find that Sir John has spent as many years out of this country as in it and what makes him think that only people of three score years and ten can save this area?

I used to skate with my friends at Durham ice rink. Who saved that for the North-East? The Wasps for years were the best ice hockey team in the country and had to move to Newcastle, which never had, and didn't want, ice hockey. Please Sir John, just be gone again. - Peter Brown, Trimdon Village.

POLITICS

A WHILE ago the Liberals promised to overhaul the speed camera situation if they got into government, and now they say that top of their manifesto is abolishing the council tax.

Is this one of those situations where, if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is?

But I, like so many others, will probably vote for them to get rid of these two taxes.

What is the alternative? The man who introduced the dreaded poll tax in the first place or a man who took the country to war just to satisfy George Bush's ego?

Now that elections are looming, motorists and council tax payers can stand up and be counted. - M McKimm, Crook.

IRAQ

HAVING accepted responsibility for the conduct of British forces abroad, the Ministry of Defence must accept responsibility for the mistreatment of prisoners in Iraq.

By placing our soldiers under the command of a foreign power we have placed them in an invidious position.

Whose orders do they obey when those orders contravene the Geneva Convention?

Despite this, the lower ranks can expect to be held responsible for the atrocities carried out, but who gave the order to humiliate prisoners in order to 'soften them up' in preparation for interrogation?

Britain's image abroad, along with the good name of the British Army, is being dragged through the dust behind the American bandwagon in the Middle East.

Downing Street appears to have been blissfully unaware of the warnings given by the Red Cross and Amnesty International, at least that is what we are given to believe.

The real responsibility for this shameful affair lies not with the soldier on the ground, but much higher up the chain of command with military and civilians alike.

Just where does the buck stop? - Alan S Holmes, Ferryhill.

RECENT revelations from Iraq expose the death and torture carried out in our name, so do the politicians responsible deserve our support?

All wars and conflicts are messy affairs, but Tony Blair and the Conservatives wanted this unnecessary war against Iraq for reasons they still struggle to justify.

We should remember the world community, through the United Nations, had Saddam Hussein safely under control with inspectors actively monitoring his activities.

Sanctions and diplomatic pressures, among many other levers so successful against other despotic regimes, were driven aside by Tony Blair and the Tories as they raced to war.

Ten thousand innocent Iraqi woman and children may have been killed by our forces and their allies and not a single weapon of mass destruction has yet been found.

Now their second case for war on moral grounds is also falling apart. The hatred and anger being created abroad will live as a threat to us and our children for many years to come.

It is so regrettable that the vast resources spent bombing people in far away countries could do so much more. Just one cruise missile launched costs more than £750,000. What could you have done in your community with all that money?

When you next see a Labour or Conservative advocate for this war grinning back at you, take their words with a pinch of salt and think seriously about their judgement, having put our own young soldiers in such a legally doubtful position fighting for control of another country in very difficult circumstances. - Alec Featherstone, Pickering.

MARGARET THATCHER

THE recent letters saying Margaret Thatcher was a good Prime Minister beggar belief.

There was mass unemployment, the poll tax, girls in hairdressing salons on £1.70 per hour, YTS workers on £46 per week and the pit closures.

Australia subsidised their pits by £46 per ton, Belgium £48 per ton, Germany £42 per ton, and Poland £38 per ton to keep their men in work. Our coal board £2 per ton. It is no wonder we could not compete with foreign imports.

There were also attacks on the unions. The list is endless. - Gordon Hodgson, Bishop Auckland.

FOOTBALL

MANAGERS complain that footballers play too many matches. What an excuse.

Some of them are lucky to be involved for half an hour in each game. They are pampered and should be fit to play in every match if not injured, having no other commitment than playing football.

They are well compensated to keep fit and give 100 per cent for the club and fans. - N Tate, Darlington.