Letters

WILLIAM Ball (HAS, Dec 1) suggests that the West withdrew support for Saddam once his true nature was known.

From 1983 onwards, Iraq deployed around 100,000 poison gas munitions against the Iranians. The British and American governments knew about this, but such was their support for Saddam and his war against Iran that, even after the notorious massacre at Halabja in 1988, they continued to thwart efforts by the US Senate and the United Nations to penalise Saddam for these crimes.

Believing he had friends in high places, he thought he might also get away with invading Kuwait.

However, my main point is that the "War on Terror" has so far succeeded only in increasing the frequency and ferocity of terrorist attacks.

As widely predicted, it has also killed many thousands of innocent civilians, undermined civil rights in the West, and brought international terrorism to Iraq, where there was previously no link with al Qaida.

Osama bin Laden likes to think of himself as the head of a global Islamic state. This "war" panders to his delusions, increasing his power and influence. He is (or was) a criminal who incites others to murder, and should be treated as such. - Pete Winstanley, Durham.

Teesside AIRPORT

IT WAS very sad to hear that Redcar and Cleveland's cabinet decision was that the chief executive be instructed to cast this council's vote against the proposed name change, of Durham Tees Valley.

The cabinet was in favour of the name Durham as requested by the airlines but against the use of the additional wording "Tees Valley" as a made-up name that did not meet the needs of the airlines.

What is so sad about this decision is that a very well known ex-chair of Teesside International Airport conducted a survey amongst Redcar and Cleveland councillors. Over 40 out of 59 councillors replied, and the vast majority were in favour of retaining the name Teesside International Airport.

Not only the public will be ignored, but also the vast majority of Redcar and Cleveland councillors' views are to be snubbed.

Is this because Redcar and Cleveland's cabinet is obsessed with the word Tees? - Coun George R Dunning, Leader of the Labour Opposition on Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council.

WELL done Redcar and Cleveland councillors for rejecting the proposed silly name for Teesside Airport. Does this mean we will all have a second chance at naming the airport?

Bearing in mind the decsion to change was not only a re-branding exercise but also to raise the airport's name from the bottom of the alphabetical listing to the top, may be AAA Airport would suffice, perhaps not.

If you draw a circle of eight miles around the airport, the only major towns within the circle are Darlington and Stockton. So there it is, Darlington & Stockton Airport, a piece of history remade and Da comes before Du, as well. - Coun Charles Johnson, Darlington Borough Council.

THE proposed new name for Teesside International Airport, Durham Tees Valley, is ludicrous. The airport is miles away from the City of Durham.

The airport is just outside Darlington, complete with a Darlington post mark.

Therefore, if a name change is needed, then call it Darlington Airport or even Tees-Darlington.

Durham has no airport, and let's leave its name out of ours. - Christopher Wardell, Darlington.

EDUCATION

COUNCILLOR Neil Foster (HAS, Dec 1) says I am well wide of the mark regarding Peterlee's North Blunt primary school's teaching staff looking for alternative jobs.

I can assure him the staff have been told that if the school closes, which is more than likely, they will be made compulsorily redundant and effort will be made to find alternative positions - where? The remaining schools are fully staffed.

Is there a Christmas fairy with a magic wand? I don't think so.

Coun Foster's 'confidence' that those teachers will remain employed is what is so wide of the mark, unless education chiefs do an about turn on North Blunt School and guarantee jobs, as other authorities do.

The perfect solution. How the staff and children would agree. Please save North Blunt Primary. - Mary Armstrong, Crook.

MINERS' PENSIONS

HAVING read your article on solicitors accused of fleecing ex-miners (Echo, Nov 19) Peter Hain, the Leader of the Commons, talks about solicitors "making millions" from the compensation scheme and goes on to say these companies are raking it in. That's a bit rich coming from a Labour minister when his own government is definitely fleecing the ex-miners by taking millions each year from the mineworkers' pension scheme.

Many ex-miners struggle to get by despite a lifetime working in the industry. - DT Murray, Coxhoe.

ENERGY

THE planet Earth is bursting with energy. Its centre is white hot with molten metal; gravitation from the moon and sun moves billions of tons of water backward and forward as ocean tides; the sun's rays blaze down and turns a fair percentage of the Earth to deserts with its wasted heat; the Earth's spinning produces huge gale force winds in the atmosphere; throughout the planet extra wind is made as land and sea heat up at different temperatures and the air is moved by it.

It appears that it may take a few generations before mankind learns how to make use of these natural phenomena.

At present only a small amount of this free energy is captured.

We are just in the learning and experimental stage. It will take us some time before aeroplanes and cars and ships are provided with energy to propel them.

Some houses do have heating by the sun's rays and some electricity is made by wind and tides, but just a small percentage.

Those who do not like the method of capturing energy from these sources had an option - either a windmill (no pollution) or a chimney belching out smoke. - E Reynolds, Wheatley Hill.

AVIATION HISTORY

I AM an aviation historian and author who has spent some years researching the German Junkers 88 aircraft that crashed on Eston Hills on Sunday, March 30, 1941.

The aircraft belonged to the long-range reconnaissance unit L(F)/123 and was on an armed mission to Manchester when it was shot down by two Spitfires from Catterick.

Until recently, I was under the impression that only one member of the crew had baled out of the stricken aircraft. However, there now seems to be some grounds for believing that more than one German might have taken to his parachute. If that is the case, it could have intriguing implications.

If any reader has memories of this incident, no matter how small or seemingly trivial, I would be very pleased to hear from them. - Bill Norman Guisborough.