Hear All Sides

The bottom line is that Zimbabwe, at present, is in a dangerous state of near chaos. There have been countless bloodthirsty, racist murders and attacks on the white minority.

Our sportsmen should not for one minute consider going to play cricket - of all sports - there.

All the parties at present arguing over who should say yes or no to the tour are just trying to pass the buck.

They should all stand up for what is right, and roundly condemn Zimbabwe for "not playing the game".

Cancel the tour until Zimbabwe returns to playing by the rules of decent, civilised behaviour. - EA Moralee, Billingham.

THE solution to the World Cup cricket is simple. Our professional players representing 250 years of English cricket, and not our transient government of the day, should go to Zimbabwe and play.

However, we have in our Government a minister who is a most successful sporting saboteur. I refer to Peter Hain.

So I call upon Peter Hain to do his duty, to stand up for human rights once again and who knows, he may get a game. - D Marshall, Darlington.

FIREWORKS

EVEN on Christmas Day we had to endure the cracks and bangs - yes the fireworks fanatics are at it again.

Have these idiots no thought for others? The poor animals who are terrified by the noises, the young children, some of who I know just freeze to the spot with fright. What about our elderly living alone and some in nursing homes? Some elderly confused people, I am told, think the Blitz is back.

Have some consideration for others. November 5 is the official fireworks day.

Can local councils intervene? Surely those responsible could be reminded of the local council's noise abatement laws and even the disturbance of the peace law. - Sheila McLaren, Colburn, Richmond.

POLLYANNA

AFTER watching Pollyanna on TV, and thinking what a refreshing change to see a good and wholesome programme without being irked by sex or violence, I find Steve Pratt's review cynical (Echo, Jan 2).

To write 'Hooray' because a little girl is lying helpless in bed and 'make her suffer' when treatment is suggested that will be painful, is unfair.

In the previous column Peter Barron writes: "Wouldn't the world be a better place if the leaders were all grandmas?"

Well, I am grandma to four and I did just think after watching Pollyana if our youngsters were fed more things of goodly report, some of it might rub off.

I am just glad that there is a control knob on the TV set, but sorry there is not one to turn off Steve Pratt. - Maisie Simpson, Hartlepool.

I TAKE exception to Steve Pratt's review (Echo, Jan 2) of Pollyanna.

We enjoyed the film, it was clean, it was good, it was wholesome.

Yes, it was nostalgic, yes, Pollyanna was a bit over the top... too nice, but the whole point of the film is that it portrays the virtues of kindness, understanding and compassion as real and, where allowed to flourish, can overcome all kinds of prejudice.

Then he says: "We return to the real world of The Bill." How pathetic is this! We used to watch The Bill until we got sick of the sleaze and corruption it portrays. If this mirrors in any way the modern police force, then I say to myself God help us.

This is an alternative way, but this world of lust, falsehood and corruption can only end in confusion, grief and despair.

Give me the world of Pollyanna, the real world, the civilised world, where kindness, understanding and compassion are real and are the marks of any decent human being. - Jim Hall, Sedgefield.

WAR ON IRAQ

YOUR excellent Comment column (Echo, Dec 20) is timely. It's not so much Saddam Hussein who is a threat to world peace, but rather George Bush, son of the George Bush who, along with John Major, bombed the innocents of Iraq in 1991, and who got the United Nations to employ economic sanctions against Iraq, a policy which even the former Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, an upholder of so-called "just war", came to see after almost ten years as being immoral and a cause of intense hatred against the British and the Americans who had destroyed their country by the Iraqi people.

Now President Bush is set on establishing 'Son of Star Wars' missiles in Britain, at Fylingdales, in Yorkshire, attempting to win British support by offering 'commercial opportunities' for British companies involved in the arms trade.

No wonder that so many of us in Britain are appalled at Tony Blair's alliance with Bush, who speaks of 'peace' in terms of punishing and destroying those nations which refuse to go along with America's military establishment, a regime which obviously sees human life as cheap and expendable so long as America's interests are upheld. - Rev J Stephenson, Sunderland.