MIDDLE EAST: THOSE who berate talks with the Palestianians should remember that, to ease the West's guilt after nearly 2,000 years of church and state sanctioned anti-Semitism, the Jews were given their own homeland. We in the West did not care one bit that it was already inhabited, nor did we care about what would happen as a consequence.

Equally, they should remember that when British men, women and children were getting killed or injured by Republican and Loyalist terrorists, America not only supplied the money and munitions, but many Republican and Democratic Party politicians, who demanded a war on terrorism, not only used Northern Ireland and Irish history to further their own wealth and political careers but were regular attendees at Republican fund raisers where they gave massive donations to literally have British citizens killed. - CT Riley, Spennymoor.

COUNCIL SERVICES

TWO reports (Echo, Jan 10) highlight the problems of service provision within local government.

First of all there was the report on Durham County Council's refusal to reverse its decision to cut back on the gritting of roads.

Secondly, there was the report that Sedgefield Borough Council had received financial backing for a 'recycling scheme'.

It appears that councils are unable to receive and spend finances which allow them to prioritise in favour of basic services such as snow clearance.

It is no good providing magnificent all-purpose leisure centres when pensioners and the disabled are trapped in their homes because of snow and ice.

The question that should be asked in relation to the provision of services is: do we really need this? There are too many people paying for services which, for either physical or financial reasons, are of no use to them. - Brian Gibson, Socialist Labour Party, Ferryhill.

I WOULD like to obtain a pair of the same rose-coloured spectacles that council officials wear so that on my walks to and from town the litter, dog dirt and blocked gullies will magically disappear as indicated in a recent edition of Town Crier. - A Telford, Darlington.

THE Government introduced Best Value with the aims of providing a quality service for local government and encouraged councils to save two per cent from their annual budgets.

Last year Durham County Council increased its council tax by 14.8 per cent and Sedgefield Borough by 19 per cent over the last two years.

I now read that Durham County Council's Government settlement for 2003-4 is 4.6 per cent. May I point out that is double inflation and should not be used as an excuse to hike up council taxes.

Sedgefield Borough already has the highest D Band council tax in England and many local families are suffering as a result of job losses.

I would refer Hear All Sides readers to the Durham County Council leaflet Winter Salting Routes.

During the first spell of snow and ice, I have received complaints from angry Spennymoor residents about the cuts to gritting routes. I have passed these complaints on to Durham County Council.

If we have prolonged periods of snow, residents may have difficulty in travelling to work and suffer a loss of income. The road safety concerns of the public due to gritting route cuts are my main concern. - Ben Ord, Chairman, Spennymoor Liberal Democrats.

EDUCATION

CHILDREN are losing language skills (Echo, Jan 9). Parents admit that the television is the main source of conversation and language teaching for many children.

Small wonder that so many youngsters suffer from speech defects and poor vocabulary. Not only can the TV not pick up on and correct mistakes, but it cannot teach children to speak clearly and grammatically. In fact, many programmes display a distinctly bad way of speaking.

In popular soaps such as EastEnders, the 'th' sound is generally replaced by 'f'. Characters frequently 'fink summinks wrong', for example. In this they are correct.

Small wonder children can't communicate in good English.

Switch off the TV and introduce family discussions. Not only will the children's language skills improve, but so will family life. - EA Moralee, Billingham.

ROAD SAFETY

HAS Durham County Council gone mad in its new traffic calming scheme outside of Cleves Cross School Ferryhill?

It seems to be putting every road calming measure into the one scheme and to cap it all off there is to be no parking within the scheme for the disabled.

I should like to know why this site was singled out as I do not recall any accidents in that area, whereas half a mile down the road in Cleves Avenue there have been many, but no traffic calming there.

I should like to know where the rights of the disabled people are in this scheme. - S Todd, Ferryhill.

FOREIGN AFFAIRS

DEMOCRACY, now there is a word with all sorts of connotations. The dictionary states: 'A form of government in which sovereign power rests with the people'.

What a shame Tony Blair does not understand the meaning of the word.

The simple truth is that we live in a country where true democracy is at a premium - or more precisely we do not live in a democracy.

A simple example of the abuse of this precise word is Mr Blair's determination to ignore the will of the people of the UK and follow the dictat of a foreign power, the US.

Labour MPs have it in their hands to stop this war against Iraq and they do nothing. They are a disgrace to the Labour movement and to the people who elected them. - Hugh Pender, Darlington.