15/04/04

He forgets the financial policies of 20 years of Conservative Party rule divided the nation, so that poorly paid rural inhabitants were replaced by higher salaried residents from towns and cities.

To strengthen his case, Mr Hague introduces the old scare of the cost of a regional assembly by comparing it with the London Assembly (£100m) and the Scottish Parliament (£430m). Both of these institutions will manage the future of millions of people living in the United Kingdom but he is very silent on the total financial cost of an airfield build in the Falkland Islands which only benefits a few thousand people.

He raised the issue of local councils being abolished with the underlying threat that jobs would be lost, but with regional assemblies the local councils would be re-organised to suit the modern economy, becoming more efficient and reducing waste.

The computer age does not require slow endless communication with Whitehall because now we can implement ideas and resolve issues in a shorter period of time at less cost.

A Yes vote will show future businesses why they should Be Investing North with the new North-East Assembly. - Thomas Conlon, Spennymoor.

WEAR VALLEY COUNCIL

SO here we go again, Elite Hall closing or may face demolition, funding is withdrawn from Wolsingham Baths, drop-in clubs are closed in Crook and Willington. When is it going to end?

Nothing ever seems to close in the Bishop Auckland area. Like I have always said, it should be renamed Bishop Auckland Council.

Crook, Willington and the Dales are suffering cutbacks, but I bet none will be in Bishop Auckland. All this council wants is for Crook to be a residential area. - B Anderson, Crook.

CLEVELAND POLICE

I BELIEVE there is an enormous shortfall in the budget of Cleveland Constabulary. It has been suggested the deficit is £7m.

There are some very serious cuts proposed in frontline police.

The Government must act now to make up the shortfall. The Home Office must make up the gap in the funding.

Any cuts should not be in frontline police or in staff conducting investigations. If there are to be cuts, the first place they should be is at police headquarters at Ladgate Lane, in administration.

Remember you can do something about this. A general election is coming soon within the next few months. Write to your MP and demand that central government make up this shortfall in Cleveland's police budget. This is an ideal time to place the Government under pressure. - Nigel Boddy, Middlesbrough.

EUROPE

JEREMY Middleton (HAS, Apr 2) quite rightly draws attention to the total contempt for democracy of this treacherous government in railroading us towards an EU constitution.

We share completely his fears and demand a referendum - no argument whatsoever.

However, do we draw from your conclusions, Mr Middleton, that if radical amendments are achieved then it is perfectly all right for Tony Blair and co to consign our nation to the status of virtual serfdom, totally bereft of any powers of self-governance? Is not the constitution in any form a violation of our sovereignty?

However sincere Mr Middleton's opposition to the EU constitution may be, the record of his party in bringing us to the brink of constitutional castration needs to be examined.

It was the Conservative government of Edward Heath that in 1972 took Britain into the Common Market, with the assurance that we were merely entering a trading block and that any surrender of sovereignty was unthinkable.

These same lies were repeated by the Wilson Government in 1975 to secure a Yes vote in the referendum on our continued membership of the EEC.

Untold damage was further heaped upon us when Margaret Thatcher signed the Single European Act (1986) and John Major gave his blessing to the Maastricht Treaty in 1992.

Until the Conservatory Party publicly acknowledge and apologises for the significant contribution to the constitutional butchery inflicted on our nation it will remain as part of the problem, not the solution.

Michael Howard, like William Hague and IDS before him, has declared party policy to be that no matter what degradation, humiliation and ignominy the EU chooses to inflict upon us at no time would he ever consider withdrawal. - Dave Pascoe, Press Secretary, UK Independence Party, Hartlepool Branch.

POLICE COMPLAINTS

THE law-abiding public will welcome the new Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) being independent.

This will give confidence and hope to a lot of people who want to combine respect for the law with integrity. The old system could be unjust. - N Tate, Darlington.

IRAQ

WE have heard a lot recently about Moqtada al-Sadr in Iraq.

I would like to draw the attention of your readers to another Muslim firebrand who drew his strength from the poor and discontented in his land.

Only this was 120 years ago in the Sudan. I refer to Mohammed Ahmed, later to become known as The Mahdi.

He was able to galvanise together a large force of fighters who took on the British and Egyptian occupiers of that land. This culminated in the massacre of the British garrison at Khartoum, under the command of General Gordon.

It took 15 years for what Britain would describe as order to be restored at the Battle of Omdurman.

It would be very foolish of the Americans to underestimate the local support of this man, and I cannot believe their crassness in enabling this character to achieve the importance to which he is not entitled. - Peter Hill, Darlington.