EDUCATION: WE are told, by both Labour and Conservative alike, that we need lots of immigrants to fill the gaping hole we have for skilled workers.

Yet thousands of competent, highly qualified and experienced tradesman have been made redundant because they were over 50 years of age.

If those still fit enough and able were brought back to work, they could train thousands of our youngsters who are out of work and who do not have the ability (or the money now) to cope with further education and university.

With the help of good technical colleges, as we used to have, we could encourage proper apprenticeships and in doing so, we would soon have all the young skilled workers we need to carry us through for many years to come. - Joan McTigue, Independent Councillor for Beechwood Ward, Middlesbrough.

ISLAM

LORD Carey made a speech criticising Islam. Peter Mullen (Echo, Mar 30) adds to that criticism.

Many people, including correspondents to this newspaper, are now openly critical of Islam while at the same time complaining that they are forbidden to be openly critical of Islam. Does this make sense?

It is wrong to blame Islam, or Muslims in general, for the problems of terrorism, corruption and repression in the Arab world.

The overwhelming majority of Muslims condemn both the September 11 attacks and the American response. They oppose the killing of civilians, whether by Arab suicide bombers or by American or Israeli warplanes.

The Muslim Council of Britain recently wrote to every mosque in Britain, unequivocally condemning terrorism, urging full co-operation with the police, and encouraging positive contacts with other faiths in the interests of peace and good community relations.

G Gilligan (HAS, Apr 12) says I have presented a one-sided view. That is absolutely right. George Carey's Rome speech (which was a great deal more balanced than it has been made out to be) has been seized upon by many people to justify an unwarranted attack on Islam.

I was trying to put the other side of the story. That is why I mentioned the gospel according to Matthew: "And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? ... Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye." - Pete Winstanley, Durham.

REGIONAL GOVERNMENT

IN Wales, on the lead up to devolution, the promise was that the Welsh assembly would take control of the quangos running Wales.

To this date this has not happened. The quangos are even stronger now than pre-devolution, and are now officially titled as ASPB's, Assembly Sponsored Public Bodies.

Is there any reason to believe things would be different in the North-East? - K Young, Darlington.

SCHOOLS

HOW ridiculous - £20m on replacing Eastbourne School when talks are on going over closing a school in Darlington because of too few children. - Mrs J Hunter, Darlington.

RWANDA

THE recent pictures on TV of slaughtered men, women, children and babies in Rwanda, during the 1994 massacres, are horrendous to say the least.

What kind of savages could sink to these depths? Mountain of human beings lying dead, and for what? Because they happened to be from a different tribe.

The United Nations should have stepped in. It sickens one to think that men could stoop to such savagery and get away with it.

God help them. I am beginning to doubt the words of Abraham Lincoln that "all men were created equal". I think not. - Jim Ross, Rowlands Gill.

LAW AND ORDER

I CONGRATULATE Ray Mallon and Middlesbrough Police for their reported achievements with regard to the war on crime.

It was heartening to read Mr Mallon's column (Echo, Apr 2) and his level-headed attitude toward the destruction of criminal elements without our society.

Recently, I have noticed several bus shelters and telephone boxes with their glass shattered, and a friend of mine tells me it is a regular occurrence where he lives.

The condition of North Road, Neville Street and the bus station in Durham is appalling even after all the money that has been spent on them. The whole area is dirty and depressing due to a lack of care and respect.

Our present government has an abysmal record and has done little to help the situation. In fact with regard to law and order they have done all in their power to make matters worse. They have befriended terrorists, allowed the most notorious criminals to go free in Northern Ireland, humiliated and demoralised the police force of Northern Ireland, and are a threat to normal family life and the welfare of children by encouraging homosexual abnormalities and perversions.

What can we expect when our society in general has turned its back on God, never give him a thought, nor praise for his provision. It is time for a change. - CG Farquhar, Durham.

ECONOMICS

PETE Winstanley (HAS, Apr 10) seeks an answer to how equality of wealth can be achieved in the modern world. The utopia that Mr Winstanley seeks is called communism.

If 20th century history has taught us anything, it is that communism is not in practice a desirable concept. The writings of Marx and Engels as adapted by Trotsky and implemented by the Russian Bolsheviks lead by Stalin produced not equality but tyranny and ultimately failure at the cost of millions of lives.

The Communist Republics of China, North Korea, Cuba and Vietnam are modern day examples of totalitarianism which give not freedom and equality as their unelected governments claim, but oppression, fear and state injustice on a massive scale.

The essential truth is that true freedom can only be provided by the Anglo-Saxon economic model that we have enjoyed in the British Isles, North America and Australiasia for many generations. The principal benefit of our capitalist way of life is a workable democratic system of governance, which is far from perfect but better than any other alternative yet tried.

If we preserve and strengthen our democracy in which commerce is free to develop then freedom, peace, prosperity, near full employment and all the vital ingredients that provide for an excellent quality of life, including as much equality as is truly practical, will follow. - Peter Troy, Chairman Darlington Branch, Federation of Small Businesses.