NEW LABOUR: BECAUSE of her left wing views, it came as no surprise when Clare Short left the Government, nor would it be surprising if she left the Labour Party.

Miss Short would be far more comfortable in Arthur Scargill's Socialist Party.

At the last general election Arthur Scargill stood as a Socialist candidate in Hartlepool where he was soundly defeated by Peter Mandelson.

I know it is hypothetical, but what an intriguing contest it would be if, at the next general election, Clare Short stood as a Socialist candidate against Peter Mandelson. The result of this confrontation would reveal if the electors still favour the New Labour of Peter Mandelson or would they prefer to return to the old Labour of Clare Short?

Since Hartlepool is a Labour constituency, this would be a true test of what Labour voters really desire. - David Brand, Houghton-le-Spring.

FOOTBALL

BOB Murray, the chairman under whose misguidance Sunderland have been relegated more times than under any other figurehead in their history, is now renowned for saying things that turn out to be untrue.

"If Peter (Reid) goes, I go", "I can assure you that Howard (Wilkinson) will be manager here next season", "Sunderland are no longer a selling club", "Certain players will not be welcome back at the club," (no names and they were all there on the first day of pre-season training). The list is seemingly endless.

Murray really should leave Sunderland before things possibly get really nasty, because having attended all the pre-season friendlies, so far there is definitely a majority feeling very much against him remaining on the board a moment longer.

Murray oversaw the disastrous buying policies of Peter Reid, who bought many players, but never played them, for tens of millions of pounds. That has landed us in an awful financial position.

Please Bob, stop killing my club, and go and retire. - George Rowan, Hetton-le-Hole.

IRAQ DOSSIER

THERE is a cancer at the heart of British public life which is paralysing government, poisoning genuine debate and, if allowed to rage on unchecked, will eventually threaten democracy itself.

The latest casualty is Dr David Kelly, a fine scientist, a decent and honourable man, who sought nothing but making a better world for us all to live in safely. He was hammered to death on a bitter anvil forged by hatred, ambition, ruthless political manipulation and dubious journalism. As his family said his life had been made intolerable.

The business of politics has been polluted by a new brutality that eats up and spits out human beings, sacrificed to the great God soundbite.

It is a world that permits no frailty, no mistakes and no admissions in the never-ending war between Government struggling to govern and sections of a media determined to bring it down.

The judicial inquiry into the circumstances surrounding Dr Kelly's death must get to the unvarnished truth of what led to it.

We need to know what pressure was put on him to go public and how he was outed.

How savage and what exactly was said at Dr Kelly's grilling by Geoff Hoon's heavies at the Ministry of Defence?

We need to know how accurate was the reporting of the BBC's Andrew Gilligan and whether he lethally misquoted Dr Kelly.

We need to know if Tony Blair and his team abused their position in an effort to throw up a smokescreen over its misjudgements about the war in Iraq.

In the war against terror we invaded Iraq to rid the world of weapons of mass destruction. Instead, we have destroyed the man who devoted his life to doing just that. And we did it with a particularly brutal form of institutional terror. - DT Murray, Durham.

AIRPORT STRIKE

IF I had to name the lousiest trick I've heard of lately it would have to be the BA strike.

To deliberately target people going on holiday is about as putrid as it gets.

There's actually been a recent spate of such behaviour from union activists and, if we're not careful, it will soon be the mix as before: cowardly, complacent, corrupt management; weak, clueless government; and vicious industrial muscle. And you know where that combination got us then. - T Kelly, Crook.

ROYAL FAMILY

I REFER to your comment (Echo, Jul 16). People in this country do have a high regard for the Queen who has faithfully ruled over this nation as her father, King George VI did, and she should continue to rule over us until she finds a suitable and competent successor.

A constitutional monarchy in the 21st century should not be guided by value, and it is supposed to have moved on from a code of conduct created in the 18th century.

Our values are based on our Christian foundations and these have not changed. Those Christian values made us a great nation that others looked up to and have produced great men and women of vision.

Britain is not a multi-faith, multi-cultural society. Eighty per cent of the people in this country have a Christian foundation and only two to three per cent of people are from ethnic minority backgrounds with different culture and different religious beliefs.

Yes, we are a tolerant society.

No, it is not right for a non-Anglican or anyone who marries a Roman Catholic to rule over us, because we would be governed by Rome, through the back doors. - P Springer, Hartlepool.