Letters

I CONGRATULATE my local Durham County Councillor, Paul Trippett, for refusing the increase in allowances that has been awarded by the councillors to the councillors (Echo, Aug 1).

The new allowances work out at £157 per week against the old rate of £138. This might just cover the increases that the rest of us ratepayers will have to pay - an increase that will be passed by the same councillors who recently voted themselves an allowance increase.

But something seems to be wrong here. Wasn't it the people of Trimdon who voted Mr Trippett into office to look after our interests. So where does the Labour group get the power from to bar this man from carrying out his duties? - Peter Brown, Trimdon Village.

KYLIE MINOGUE

OF COURSE scantily-dressed pop singers such as Kylie Minogue and Britney Spears are pressurising primary school girls into wearing clothes that are totally unsuitable (Echo, July 30).

The lewd posing and actions performed by these popstars, dressed in provocatively revealing outfits, sends all the wrong messages to young, impressionable minds. They say: "Wiggle about like this, show your legs and knickers and plenty of wobbling breasts and you too can become famous like me."

What chance do little girls have to stand up for modest, decent standards of dress and behaviour with so much pressure on them to go the other way? These pop idols should think less of themselves and more about the youngsters they influence. - EA Moralee, Billingham.

OLD AGE

WHEN will the Powers That Be realise that the biological age of a person is more important than their calendar age?

To assert that when a man is 65 or a woman 60, that they are too old to work for a living and must be pensioned off is stupid. Many people - often self-employed - work on until they 70 or 80. Other workers, though, should retire at 40 or 50, depending on their physical ability.

Very often civil servants and council workers go on to voluntary work, having been retired for no other reason than their 65th or 60th birthday.

Many of the councillors and MPs who deem these people are too old for work are themselves over retirement age.

Winston Churchill became Prime Minister when he was in his 65th year and most people thought he did a very good job.

In Victorian times, perhaps policemen and firemen were too old to do their job efficiently at 55 years of age, but now policemen and firemen often retire at that age and go on to work in even more hazardous occupations such as security guards.

Is it not time for public workers to be given a medical examination and, if fit enough, be allowed to chose whether to carry on working or to retire on a pension? After all, a policeman or fireman can be retired at any age if found to be unfit for their job. - E Reynolds, Wheatley Hill.

TONY BLAIR

AT last we have the truth. Tony Blair "still has an appetite for power". What he and other politicians should remember is that they are not elected to power, they are elected to represent their constituents in a democratic parliament.

Mr Blair was not elected by the constituents of Sedgefield to be Prime Minister; he was elected to represent them in Parliament, a fact that he seems to have forgotten.

Power is a drug that results in blinkered vision. It is high time that Mr Blair weaned himself off this drug and learned humility.

Mr Blair should remember this and admit that he was wrong to send British troops to Iraq on the pretext of destroying Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction. - M Flowers, Hurworth.

EUROPE

BILL Morehead (HAS, July 29) tells us that membership of the EU brings us untold benefits from financial subsidies. The naivety of this belief is astounding.

Perhaps he would like to tell us where this money originates from. Of course it comes out of the pockets of the people of Great Britain. The Government takes it through direct and indirect taxation and then pays it out as its statutory contribution to the EU budget. It is then shared out so that the poorest members (like Greece) get the biggest slice.

It is therefore a colossal illusion to say that the benefits cited by Mr Morehead are due to the generosity of the EU. We all pay for them in one way or another.

The only good thing about the present arrangement is that once the Treasury has paid the annual amount to the EU, it is relatively free of political manipulation by the dodgy government in Whitehall. - RK Bradley, Darlington.

GAY MARRIAGES

THE Australian Prime Minister John Howard has aligned himself with the Vatican and President George Bush in opposing gay marriages by stating that such marriages do nothing to support the "survival of the species" as no offspring can result from them.

I asked myself does the real threat to the species come from gay marriages or from religious doctrines which forbid the use of contraceptives to prevent the spread of STDs such as AIDS, and other forms of birth control to reduce human over-population?

Our inability to sustain our existing population is what lies at the heart of many of this planet's problems. - CT Riley, Spennymoor.