23/01/04

Where freedom of movement, speech and association are all suppressed by the government; where mass torture, illegal imprisonment and partisan feeding programmes are meted by the government and reinforced by the military, police, militia, so-called war veterans and Mugabe's notorious CIO - Central Intellegence Agency.

The spiralling rate of inflation, the political and economic collapse, have ruined Zimbabwe. All of which are directly attributable to Mr Mugabe's dictatorial polices.

The England and Wales Cricket Board must move to cancel the October tour of Zimbabwe without further delay. - Albert Weidemann, Ripon.

BLUES FESTIVAL

AS the local county councillors for Stanley, it is with great concern that we learn the Stanley Blues Festival for 2004 is in jeopardy.

We wish to make it clear that Durham County Council will do everything possible to ensure this tremendous celebration continues.

Over the years the Stanley Blues Festival has become a major annual event attracting over 10,000 people and it has developed a wider importance than was perhaps first intended.

While, of course, it is eagerly anticipated by Blues enthusiasts, it has become equally important to the town of Stanley, both economically and socially.

Consequently, the importance of the festival is highlighted in both the Regional Culture Strategy and the County Durham Cultural Strategy.

Durham County Council is the principal funder of Northern Recording, which first conceived the festival many years ago and which continues to programme the event, bringing a line-up of top international blues artists to the North-East. The county council also contributes £2,500 to the festival running costs.

We are at present arranging discussions with partners aimed at ensuring that the 2004 event goes ahead in August as usual. - Councillors E Hunter, M Hodgson, D Marshall, Les Vaux, Durham County Council.

GEOFF HOON

THE Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon is hardly going to appear on TV before a conflict with anyone and admit his troops have not get everything they need. This automatically gives an advantage to the enemy.

The calculated risk of giving one squaddie's armour to another did not work in this case. The man's wife is obviously unhappy about his death, but I don't see this as a resignation affair for Mr Hoon just because the media have eagerly seized on this and blown it out of all proportion, even though one death is one too many. - F Atkinson, Shincliffe.

SCOTTISH MPS

MAY I ask your readers what they think about Scottish MPs, who have their own parliament, being allowed to vote on an English issue.

Whether you are for or against top-up fees is not the issue, it is the fact that we can't and never will be allowed to vote on a Scottish issue.

MPs in Scotland have stated they will vote for top-up fees, at the same time saying that it is wrong for Scotland, but right for England (thin end of the wedge springs to mind here).

Remember these are the same people who are looking for money from us to build their new house in Edinburgh, which is costing more and more even as you read this, but rest assured, you will never be allowed a seat in their Parliament or even a vote on something.

So come on and let's read about your feelings on how some other country can dictate how you spend your money. - Peter Brown, Trimdon Village.

REGIONAL GOVERNMENT

GEOFF Lilley is misinformed (HAS, Jan 10). Yes4thenortheast was launched in Durham back in June 2003, shortly after the referendum on an elected assembly was announced. The launch was widely reported in the regional media at the time.

The recent launch of the campaign in London successfully brought to the attention of the London chattering classes the growing campaign here in the North-East. They were told that a regional assembly would lead the fight to create employment for all in the North-East by giving the region a stronger voice and enabling us to make more decisions about the region here in the region. The people of the North-East have much to gain from an elected assembly. - Katie Schmuecker, Co-ordinator, Yes4thenortheast, Durham.

PETER MULLEN

HOW I agree with M Ward (HAS, Jan 21) about Peter Mullen.

I was shocked that a 'man of the cloth' could be so unfeeling towards God's creatures. Birds blasted from the sky, foxes hunted to exhaustion then torn to shreds, these are not wholesome activities.

How can Mr Mullen call himself a Christian? Surely God didn't give us animals to abuse, and Jesus Christ, when He was on this earth, certainly didn't treat animals as commodities.

Animals and birds are living, feeling creatures with souls, just like us. Live and let live Mr Mullen. - R Laycock, Shildon.

AS a child we owned every type of pet and were always taught how to look after them.

We loved them as part of the family but that didn't stop us climbing the wall of the local abattoir and watching the slaughter of cows and sheep and then happily going home from these bloody scenes and eating our tea.

It neither shocked nor disturbed us or changed our attitude to our pets. Children are far more resilient then M Ward (HAS, Jan 21) thinks and Peter Mullen is, in my opinion, much more sensible about children's sensibilities. - S Harnby, Stockton.

INWARD INVESTMENT

RECENT remarks regarding the failure of inward investment by "large" companies have been very disappointing to say the least.

To match Fujitsu against Samsung is simply not matching like for like.

I agree that the backbone and engine room of Britain comes mainly from small and medium enterprises, but to discount and mock say, Fujitsu, is a touch disrespectful to those, like myself, who remain grateful for the skills I was allowed to build in what was a real cutting edge environment.

Those skills allowed many to be dispersed to all corners of the globe; the very skills the region can ill afford to continue to lose.

Fujitsu was a tremendous employer to the majority, the Japanese workforce finding the closure much more difficult to accept than ourselves. As a company they paid back every penny taken and were more than generous with their redundancy package.

It was not so many years back that just about every town in County Durham had a nationalised industry being propped up with taxpayers' money, year after year after year. Seemingly, they didn't count!

A balance and mix of employment is required and big companies surely figure somewhere in that jigsaw. - Jim Tague, Bishop Auckland Conservatives.