23/01/03

An Englishman's, as well as a Scots, Irish and Welshman's, home should be his castle and if anybody breaks in it should not be three strikes and you are out. It should be one strike and you're in for a minimum of three years.

Any repeat offence should be met with a double sentence.

If we do not have enough prison cells then we should build more. They would be far more useful than the Dome.

But I am convinced that there would not be any need as the number of burglaries would decline dramatically if the criminals thought they really were going to be punished. - Stephen Feaster, Chairman, United Kingdom Independence Party, Ryedale Branch.

FIRE STRIKE

ACCORDING to Downing Street, any form of industrial action by the firefighters would be unjustified.

What is really unjustified is the Government's contemptuous attitude to both the firefighters and the local authority employers.

Government interference and pressure have ensured that each offer by the employers has proved inferior to its predecessor.

The Bain report offered four per cent and the FBU acceptance of rigid modernisation proposals. It is no accident that this gaggle of great and good people, whose sum knowledge of the fire service could have been written on the back of a postage stamp, just happened to echo the destructive proposals favoured by Tony Blair's ministers.

Modernisation, which meant more holidays, a four-day week and a 40 per cent increase in pay for those already over-paid academics meant thousands of jobs lost for the essential, hard working, life-saving firefighters,

I am sure that many a life has been lost for the want of a fireman. I have yet to hear of one being lost for the want of an MP. - James Fitzpatrick, Gateshead.

COUNCIL FINANCES

THIS is the time of year when the central Government's cash settlement to local government is announced and local councils use it to calculate council rates for the next financial year.

This year's allocation to Sedgefield Borough Council is a 10.4 per cent increase on last year and yet the borough still intends to increase its council tax rates by approximately three per cent. With such a large increase from the Government to the borough, the council taxpayers of Sedgefield could have expected no increase next year.

Even a reduction could have been hoped for, especially as they have seen their rates increase by 19 per cent over the last two years.

However, Sedgefield Borough seems incapable of controlling its spending and appears to be oblivious to the financial hardships of many of their constituents at a time when jobs are at risk and wage awards are low.

Unfortunately, poor budgeting control and decision-making by the new-style undemocratic cabinet system is reducing the standard of living of many of the people they are supposed to be representing. - Kevin Thompson, Liberal Democrat District Councillor, Middlestone Ward, Sedgefield Borough Council.

MANY of us are now paying the final instalment of last year's council tax. No doubt calculations will be made shortly, if not already done, to work out how much our council is asking us to pay over the next year.

It will appear pretty certain that our costs will increase once again, though it is highly unlikely that the blame will be laid on the shoulders of the Government.

I can recall what reasons were given year after year when we had a Conservative government and a socialist council. It was always the same old story - increases are inevitable because of the actions of central government.

I hope it won't be too long before we can see those reasons once again. - Peter Johnston, Darlington.

UNIVERSITY FEES

THE leader writer (Echo, Jan 18) makes the usual point that more taxation is the only way forward and because we are the fourth highest economy in the world, we can all afford it.

The fact that huge increases in our NHS spending, since this Government came to power, has not improved the patient care by the amount increased, proves that high taxation does not solve the issue.

A 20 per cent increase in spending and patient care improvement of two per cent is certainly not value for money.

If we go on the way we are, meddling about with our education and universities, we will end up with a situation where our best students will miss out; those who deem you privileged will refuse you a place at university even though you are better qualified.

Many children who come from the lower end of the social scale are at a disadvantage because they do not get the encouragement from their parents and no amount of schooling can change that.

It is time they started giving those on the lower end of the social scale a better deal and stopped bleeding them dry to pay for those who want everything for nothing. - John Young, Crook.

WAR ON IRAQ

SO President Bush and his puppet Tony Blair are set to go to war with Iraq over its weapons of mass destruction.

To date, the weapons inspectors have found no evidence - only some empty tubes (Echo, Jan 18).

If my memory serves me correct, did not the Americans invent the atom bomb and then use it when at war with Japan and bomb Hiroshima in 1945?

It's true to say that Iraq, an Arab kingdom, was formerly administered by the British Empire.

Now we witness a British Prime Minister, Mr Blair, sending British forces to destroy it. - A St Julien, Durham.