IRAQ MEMORIAL

SHORTLY after the military success in Iraq, Tony Blair said there would be some kind of ceremony to honour the British contingent.

He stressed, however, that this would not be a tribute to the fallen, and so a memorial service was held in St Paul's Cathedral.

As Prime Minister and head of Government, Tony Blair had every right to attend the ceremony and it would have been very alarming if he had not. - LD Wilson, Guisborough.

HEALTH SERVICE

WHY don't the BMA, MPs and the like get off their well-paid fat behinds and get the health service put right without any political interference.

Why can't pensioners, disabled, and the chronic sick have the same exceptional medical treatment as footballers, MPs and so-called elite.

These people had insurance cards, paid tax and did a hard day's work for this so-called country of ours. Why should they be treated as guinea pigs?

Past and present governments do not believe in the unions or the welfare state. - Vincent Weldon, Witton Gilbert.

POLICE SERVICE

RAY Mallon may not agree with the Tories' idea of elected police chief constables as in America, but if that system was in place on Teesside it would have saved the taxpayer millions of pounds. Very few of the Teesside people yet understand why all that money was spent on Operation Lancet and very few can understand what it was all about.

If chief constables were elected, the Teesside affair would never have happened in the first place. - E Reynolds, Wheatley Hill.

PENSIONS

WE have been re-assured that making a claim for pensions credit is easily done by contacting the pension Service by telephone.

After giving initial information, a form will be sent, partly typed up, for the claimant to complete. There is a list of personal documentation you are required to send - bank statements, share certificates, payslips, final earnings and birth certificates, etc. They send a 30-page guidance book.

Anyone eligible for Income Support should qualify for council tax benefit, so the Pension Service encloses a form for that also.

Two or three weeks later you will receive a claim form from Darlington Borough Council as it will not use the form provided by the Pension Service. Both require basically the same information.

Don't expect a reply to letters or wait for telephone calls to be returned.

Do expect to have to send information they omitted to request originally. Do expect to receive contradictory and duplicated information.

Both organisations take at least eight weeks to process a claim. Even the most patient claimant will find it a frustrating and laborious experience dealing with such incompetent bureaucracy.

Do not believe anyone who claims the system to be easy or efficient. - Name and address supplied.

CONSERVATIVES plan to increase the basic state pension in line with earnings and at the same time reverse the trend of subjecting more pensioners to an intrusive and degrading means test.

The Government's mean-tested benefits are so complex even they admit that 1.4 million of the poorest pensioners won't claim them. The means test form is humiliating to fill out and destroys any incentive to save for retirement.

The Conservatives say they will restore the link between pensions and earnings and give pensioners dignity in retirement and why should pensioners accept less? - Charles Johnson, Darlington.

CONSERVATIVE PARTY

TORY MPs gave leader Iain Duncan Smith a rapturous reception before his speech to conference. Earlier in the week we heard the same old Tory speeches as in other years.

Shadow Education Secretary Damian Green used some fancy words as he tried to baffle the public. But what he was really saying was that Tories only want good education for rich parents' kids.

Shadow Health Secretary Liam Fox did not fool me one bit. His Tory party would abolish the National Health Service and only wealthy families would be able to afford specialist treatment.

Shadow Home Secretary Oliver Letwin, on law and order, went on about the lady shopkeeper recently killed by a gunman, but then blamed the incident on the Government. He fell just short of saying that a Tory government would have policemen protecting every street and premises in the land.

After Iain Duncan Smith's speech I watched the betraying Tory MPs giving their leader a standing ovation.

At the end of the day it came down to same old Tories - first class at prattle, second class politicians. - JL Thompson, Crook.

IMMIGRATION

DAVID Blunkett has no idea how many illegal immigrants there are. Mr Wealands has no idea either, so why does he persist in telling us that "thousands" arrive each week, costing us "millions"? (HAS, Oct 15).

We know exactly how many asylum seekers there are, how many are granted refugee status, and how many are deported.

Illegal immigrants who do not claim asylum are regularly caught and deported. They cannot obtain benefits or proper jobs, except some who manage to procure forged identities. Others work illegally, often in the crop picking and food processing industries.

Not costing you much, Mr Wealands - just providing you with cheap supermarket produce. - Pete Winstanley, Durham.