05/12/03

Had the airport been named Durham-Tees Valley in 1964 I am sure that Peel Holdings, the new operators, would be now advocating that a new, snappier name would be more appropriate.

As the airport is by the Tees and as most of its customers are from Teesside, it seems pretty obvious what the new name should be.

It remains to be seen whether or not the participating local authorities will acquiesce to the re-naming, but for The Northern Echo to go along with this badly thought out nonsense is a bit much.

Teesside Airport has served us well over the years, let us leave it thus. - Dave Hodgson, Richmond.

FOOTBALL

I MUST agree with the conclusion to the editorial (Echo, Dec 1), if Graeme Souness went to the average English club rugby match he would learn a lot - about referee baiting.

Players, especially scrum halves, coaches, subs, spectators - they are all at it. Each one seems to know more about the rules (about three times the number there are in Association Football) than the poor sap who has taken time to learn them and pass referees' examinations.

It must be tiresome to have to put up with this boorish behaviour. Small wonder that there happens to be a refereeing recruitment crisis in this area.

Plenty of people are equally fond of rugby and football. They both have their good and bad points. Trying to compare one favourably with the other is just plain crass. - Lindsay Taylor, Middlesbrough.

I HAVE read (Echo, Dec 1) of Sir Bobby Robson's and Alan Shearer's fury at having to play two games in 40 hours.

My heart goes out to these poor darlings who have to run about a field for 90 minutes each game and then pick up the paltry sums of money they are paid each year.

I wonder how they would have coped with running eight hours a day underground in the mines as many of our men had to do.

Last year I had the privilege of seeing the Kirov and Bolshoi Ballets in St Petersburg and Moscow respectively and the sheer athleticism and grace of these performers was awesome. They also rehearse and train all day and perform six nights per week with two performances on Saturdays.

I wonder how the little darlings who call themselves professional footballers would fare if they were to spend a week on this regime.

So come on St Bobby and Alan, let's have a bit of common sense and admit that if your delicate hothouse flowers got down to some hard work we may see a higher standard of football and behaviour and not the loutish demeanour that some of them think is their right. - PA Aspinall, Crook.

UNITED STATES

WATCHING the Timewatch TV programme on the disaster at Gallipoli was interesting for the insight it gave into the psyche of Winston Churchill.

He seemed to blame everyone for the terrible loss of life except his own flawed military judgement.

He became Prime Minister during the Second World War more by accident than by choice, and comments by various generals since that war indicated that Churchill's military strategy had not improved since Gallipoli.

This is not to denigrate his contribution as Prime Minister during the war and he certainly was in the right place at the right time.

The fact is of course the Americans more or less dictated the strategy of the Normandy landings and at Omaha Beach they suffered horrendous casualties, since it was they who faced the best of the German army under Rommel.

There has been, because of the Afghan and Iraq wars, a great deal of anti-American feeling, but critics of this anti-US sentiment are not really listening to the truth.

The Bush administration has hijacked American public opinion by the age-old trick of waving the flag and their present imperialist policies in the Middle East will end in disaster.

As an anti-war person, I do acknowledge the debt we owe to the Americans in the Second World War and, without doubt, but for them we would have lost. - Hugh Pender, Darlington.

NORTHERN IRELAND

YOUR Comment (Echo, Nov 28) regarding Northern Ireland questions whether the Unionists and Nationalists want a peace agreement at all and, whether Tony Blair likes it or not, his position concerning the Unionists has always been dubious.

It is time the British Government set a deadline for a complete withdrawal from Northern Ireland and gave the IRA an ultimatum that Northern Ireland be left to sort out its own affairs. In my opinion it is no longer acceptable to have army personnel and others used as cannon fodder, when their job is impossible under the rules of engagement that our gutless politicians allow.

The peace agreement and armistice have stood for so long because the IRA have been curtailed by their paymasters in America, since the September 11th atrocity. The IRA do not want peace, they like the power of the gun and enjoy destroying anyone or anything that gets in their way.

The sad part in the sorry affair is the lack of effort by the various religions and, to some extent, their willingness to condone the hatred.

Preaching 'love thy neighbour' is one thing, practising it is another.

Why don't they each pick ten men from Northern Ireland, put them in an arena and with their fists fight to decide the destiny of Northern Ireland? - John Young, Crook.

PUB NAMES

CHRIS Lloyd's column (Echo, Nov 28) was interesting on how some pubs got their names.

Does he have any idea how the pubs called Three Horse Shoes were named? After all there could not be many three-legged horses around. - E Reynolds, Wheatley Hill.

EUROPE

RECENT events in the European Union herald what could be the beginning of the end for that most corrupt and undemocratic organisation.

First, it was revealed that, once again, for the ninth successive year, the auditors of the EU refused to sign the accounts. This means that, last year, something like £10bn of British taxpayers' money went missing in the Black Hole of Brussels.

Shortly after, both France and Germany deliberately broke the Growth and Stability Pact, leaving several smaller EU countries seething with discontent.

The Pact, which was the cornerstone of the euro, has now been proved to be completely unworkable. We can be thankful that this country was not hustled into the euro by people like Peter Mandelson, who stated that it would be a political and economic disaster for Britain if we did not adopt the euro.

Even the most ardent europhiles must now be asking whether Britain would be better off out of the European Union. - Eric Wilson, Chairman, Hartlepool Branch of the UK Independence Party.