HUTTON REPORT: THE Government sought to convince us of the case for war on the basis of intelligence provided by civil servants, who are expected to be politically impartial.

An honest man would present all the evidence and argue his case from there, but Tony Blair chose to suppress or underplay those items of intelligence which did not support his case, ie:

1 Evidence of Saddam's WMD was "inconclusive".

2 Whatever WMDs Iraq did have were "battlefield munitions". While these would present a threat to an invading force, they presented no immediate danger to British interests.

3 There was no evidence of a link between the Iraqi regime and al Qaida, and nothing to suggest that Sadddam would supply biological or chemical agents to terrorists. On the contrary, the collapse of the Iraqi regime would increase the risk of such weapons falling into terrorist hands.

4 Al Qaida was "by far the greatest threat to Western interests", and this threat would be increased by an attack on Iraq.

All of this is clear from evidence presented to the Hutton Inquiry, and is not denied by the Government.

Lord Hutton's conclusions seem bizarre. Either his report is whitewash, or its remit is simply too narrow. Either way, the most important questions remain unanswered. - Pete Winstanley, Durham.

COUNCIL TAX

IN response to a recent leter (HAS, Jan 26), I would like to point out that never once did I complain about the standard of education, social services, litter-free streets or street lights provided by our council.

Durham County Council promised good winter road clearance and they failed to do that on January 15. That is all I said, and once again on January 26 when the snow that was forecast came, the gritters did not come until the roads were free of snow.

We all have to pay council tax for services and if one is not happy with the amount they have to pay I suggest they move into smaller and cheaper houses.

The neighbours of this lady must live in smaller and cheaper houses than hers, also Durham City Council tax works out cheaper than some areas of County Durham.

Durham County Council gets the money and it is for them to give good service to the tax payers. - J Henderson, Consett.

REGIONAL GOVERNMENT

SO John Prescott thinks that perhaps the proposed regional assembly could control the police. I think Mr Prescott has got the message that the general public are apathetic over his regional assembly and he is hoping to beef it up to gain additional support.

At one time the concept was to devolve government from Westminster; now it seems it is to strip local government of its functions, and move them to a regional organisation.

Just a few months ago it was decided to move the fire brigade from the control of local councillors to the regional assembly; now we are to have a regional police force.

It seems local government is to wither away and power is to be moved from local communities to this new regional authority. - Stan Smith, South Shields.

JOHN Prescott's visit to the North-East last week confirmed that the Government is on the back foot in its campaign to establish an assembly for our region.

Suddenly all sorts of vague promises are coming forward to try and convince people that any new assembly would not simply be an expensive talking shop. We hear that the police authorities might come under its jurisdiction, or maybe the Learning and Skills Council. There are also mixed messages about possible locations of an assembly - one Government minister says Durham, another says Newcastle.

This is clearly a cynical tactic by a Government that is frantically trying to shore up support for the 'yes' campaign. In typical New Labour fashion they are promising all things to all people, but as we have seen with their broken election promise on top-up fees, it will only end in a betrayal of the voters' trust.

We can already be certain what a regional assembly will give to the North-East - higher taxes, more politicians, an end to local democracy and, no doubt, an expensive assembly building.

Those of us who live in the North-East know it is a great region, with fantastic people - we should be confident enough to face the future without the millstone of an assembly to slow us down. - Martin Callanan MEP North-East, Conservative.

MOTORISTS

IT occurs to me that during the 20th century great pains were taken by the motor industry for profit-related reasons to ensure maximal use of the car by as many people as possible.

For some time past it appears that governments have seen an opportunity and have decided to use the motorists as a cash cow, milking ever increasing tax burdens, visible and invisible.

Is it not time for the funds required towards road repairs and new roads (and who knows what other non-motoring applications?) to be claimed from sources more able to afford the taxes, rather than dunning the poor motorist again?

The motorist pays enough and more as it is. - Ken Orton, Ferryhill Station.

GUANTANAMO BAY

THIS month sees the "anniversary" of Guantanamo Bay, where many prisoners, including under-18s, are being held without charge or trial.

Amnesty International is calling for all Camp Delta prisoners to be brought speedily before fair trials or released. Amnesty is also specifying that the death penalty should not be used.

Even the under-18s at Guantanamo Bay are at risk of execution, even though death sentences for child offenders are forbidden under international law. In fact, since 2000, America has executed nine child offenders, more than the rest of the world combined.

The new Amnesty International campaign "Stop Child Executions" is calling for all death sentences against child offenders to be outlawed. Executions are always wrong, but in ignoring the immaturity of children and denying the possibility of young offenders to reform and rehabilitate, they are uniquely cruel and must be abandoned.

Making child offenders safe from execution is itself a small step towards securing greater human rights for everyone else. - Ceridwen Bolton, Durham City Amnesty International Group.

EUROPE

IT is a pity that the Conservative party's current enthusiasm for a European referendum wasn't shared by the last Conservative government, which could have held a referendum on the Maastricht Treaty and refused to do so.

Liberal Democrats believe that there should have been a referendum on Maastricht. We also believe that a referendum will be necessary on the forthcoming European Constitution.

But it is sensible to wait for the final agreed text of that constitution rather than asking the public to sign up now for - or against - a pig-in-a-poke. - Fiona Hall, Liberal Democrat European spokesperson for the North-East.