19/04/04

I don't believe it!

We have not enjoyed a second delivery for years, even though the Post Office now says it is "introducing pilot areas to only receive one delivery per day".

Two weeks ago, we received not one but two letters on two different days informing us that there would only be one delivery in future. It seems that as we were not part of the pilot scheme, we had been receiving a substandard service for a very long time. Who are these lucky householders who have had two deliveries and are now causing such a backlog?

The Post Office is currently advertising a service which gives you guaranteed delivery the next day. Didn't that, in the dim and distant past, used to be called first class post? Isn't it time that the postal service had credible competition which may force it to improve deliveries for its long suffering customers? - AJ Bergg, Newton Aycliffe.

I NOTE that there is a problem with postal deliveries (Echo, Apr 13). The deliverymen (and women) are working overtime to clear the backlog.

In Edmondsley, we had a postwoman who worked here for years, knew everyone, everywhere, delivered every day. Since the new "more efficient" service was introduced, we now get deliveries every Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday and she has been allocated to another area.

I have tried making complaints by telephone to Belmont sorting office, but when the phone wasn't engaged, someone promised that a manager would ring back. That was a week last Friday, and we are still waiting. I wrote a letter of complaint a week last Friday. No acknowledgement, no answer. Perhaps they are still waiting for it to be delivered.

I have great sympathy for the delivery men(women) as this is not their fault.

This is a great example of "if it isn't broke don't mend it". - Barry Wood, Edmondsley, Co Durham.

MIDDLE EAST

MOST countries in Europe were once governed by monarchs, but most of them have dispensed with them. Some were taken over by dictators like Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin, and eventually they were disposed of and democracy prevailed.

Doesn't this sound familiar as to what is happening in the Middle East? The king of Saudi Arabia has ultimate power, no matter what the common citizen wants; so does Gadaffi in Libya.

So can the Americans in Iraq do for that country in a couple of years what took Europe a couple of centuries to attain? - E Reynolds, Wheatley Hill.

REGIONAL GOVERNMENT

DEPUTY Prime Minister John Prescott wants to cover Britain with regional assemblies. They'll be another gravy train for washed up MPs, and will waste millions of pounds of taxpayers' money.

Now, folks, I will tell you that if this idea gets the go-ahead, all the names of our countries and shires will go and will be replaced with different assembly numbers. Be warned of what New Labour intends to do. - F Wealand, Darlington.

PENSIONERS

FOR those about to claim for pensioners' credit or a reduction in council tax, I wish you luck.

Be prepared for the third degree of monumental proportions.

If, like myself, you have worked hard all your life and paid into a work's pension scheme, you will be penalised.

If you have been thrifty and saved a little money - penalised.

If you have managed to buy your own house - penalised.

If your joint income is about £3 above what is considered enough for you to live on - penalised.

Unless, of course, you know how to diddle the system. Unfair? You bet it is. - D Harrison, Darlington.

IRAQ

TUCKED away in a small corner of the Echo (Apr 7) an Iraqi hospital doctor said 16 dead children and a dozen dead women had been brought in - the victims of an American missile attack on a residential area.

Is this what we call liberation?

Blatant, brutal, indiscriminate terrorism.

We, as unquestioning allies of those who do this sort of thing, cannot be surprised if we find ourselves in the firing line.

Fortunately for us, the Iraqi people seem to distinguish between US terrorism and diplomacy but for many, we are tarred with the same brush.

Let's hope George Bush and his gangsters are thrown out in November and the Americans can recover some of their self respect. - Hugh Pender, Darlington.

THE TA

THE Territorial Army will be running a spring recruiting campaign from April 19 to May 15.

Events of last year have shown beyond all doubt the huge reliance we now place on the availability of highly trained reservists.

The TA forms the largest part of our reserves and many of its members from the North-East have played a crucial part in operations overseas.

Senior regular officers have spoken with admiration of their enthusiasm and performance and have confirmed that without them the job could not have been done.

At the same time, quietly and without fuss, others have prepared themselves to play their part should any major incident occur in this country itself.

Our recruiting campaign will be seen in towns and villages across the region. I hope that your readers will take an interest in it, and be encouraged to join the TA.

Those who do join will benefit in unexpected ways by their training and from the experience and skills that they will gain.

That is good for them and good for their employers.

Most of all, they and members of the other reserve forces will be well equipped and ready to play a key part in the country's defence - in every way a case of being twice a citizen. - Sandy Hunter, Reserve Forces and Cadets Association, North of England.

RELIGION

DISCERNING readers sensibly ignore the rubbish which some of your correspondents are allowed to pass off as reasonable opinion (HAS, Apr 7).

But part of Aled Jones' letter about Islam should not be allowed to stand unanswered.

The British are a nation not a race, but it is possible to question whether a society described as multi-cultural is precarious rather than enriched. However, it is absurd to argue that tolerance should not include religious difference.

Aled Jones has a notion of tradition we can well do without. It includes 300 years of crusades, the exclusion and murder of Jews, the burning of Joan of Arc, the execution of both Roman Catholic and Anglican priests, seaports built on the profits of slaves transported from Africa where Christian missionaries carried their faith, denying the civil rights of nonconformists including Darlington's Joseph Pease - and Christians falling out with each other in Northern Ireland today. - Eric Shuttleworth, Darlington.