Letters

THE Cherie Blair case was not so much a trial by the media as a trial of the media.

Having carefully considered the evidence, I find said media guilty, and their charges against the lady are dismissed as nonsense. But then, living in the real world, I never thought anything else.

Journalists, in their own little virtual world, might not understand that. They nurse the illusion that the 'public at large' are thirsting for their version of the truth. We are not, and often we are astonished by the triviality of their fourth-form level gossip.

There are some unanswered questions about Cherie which you have not considered. Had she been to the hairdresser's before she telephoned those solicitors? What was she wearing at 5pm on Saturday? And what was the number she first thought of?

These unanswered questions are just as important as those listed. - Wm. C Fawcett Durham.

THIS may seem bizarre but some time ago I had the impression that Mrs Blair with her brilliant brain had her sights set on being the next Prime Minister with her chairing, seminars, briefings and need of a guru, but this week has changed my thinking somewhat.

I can understand a poor, frail, confused pensioner being taken in by a conman, but oh dear, Mrs Blair, a QC!

One has to ask who is taken in by whom. Does she need a guru in this case? I smell avarice. Not content with high-class rent free Downing Street, a weekend retreat in the county, Chequers, free holiday castles, she now sets a conman wanted on three continents to buy two flats.

By the way, do you think there is a parallel between the Blairs' need of mind-bending guru Carole Caplin and the Russian royal family and their guru Rasputin, just before the Russian Revolution? Just a thought. - A Jeffcutt, Darlington.

WHAT a lot of fuss the press are making about Cherie Blair.

There's always been cover-ups at 10 Downing Street and there always will be until a socialist Labour Party leader is Prime Minister and that will be never.

No honesty is not allowed in politics. Okay, so Mrs Blair got it wrong. So have many people before her and got away with it. - John Hoodless, Darlington.

REGIONAL GOVERNMENT

SOME people are claiming that regionalisation has nothing to do with the European Union and that it means home rule for the North-East. The facts tell otherwise.

Thirty years ago, John Prescott was, for two years, a British delegate to the Council of Europe. It was at that time that European Regional Policies were being developed. Mr Prescott then took on the post of a Member of the European Parliament and so good were his European credentials that he became leader of the European Labour Group and was offered the position of an European Commissioner.

Perhaps, most telling of all was when in 1996 Labour decided that it would no longer support directly elected regional assemblies, Mr Prescott commissioned his own private report, authored by former EU Commissioner for the Regions, Bruce Millan. Predictably, this came up with the idea of Regional Development Agencies, such as One NorthEast, which now form the basis of the current regional structure.

It has to be said therefore, that Mr Prescott and the European Union agenda are inseparable, and that European thinking forms the bedrock to current Labour Party policy.

Essentially, the only thing that will make a substantial difference to current regional prosperity is more money. To that effect, one has to ask whether elected assemblies will bring more government money to the region.

If not, the only difference regional assemblies will make is that we will have a different set of politicians squabbling over the same pot of money. Their decisions may be different, but the money will be the same.

Perversely, the one thing that could make the difference is something no mainstream politician is prepared to consider. Withdraw from the EU. - PA Troy, Chairman, Sedgefield and Darlington Branch, UK Independence Party.

EUROPE

ROBIN Ashby, of North East in Europe, suggests that being outside of the euro is damaging Britain, that foreign investment is falling and that being in the euro is protecting France and Germany from the global downturn.

Mr Ashby seems not to realise that Britain has moved ahead of France in global terms to become the fourth largest economy. He also appears not to be aware that in 2004 ten new countries are set to join the Community.

The consequences of this for our manufacturing and service sectors have already started to take effect as these new members offer very cheap labour and production costs.

As Britain already has a massive trade deficit with the rest of our European neighbours, it was clearly decided a long time ago by our prudent Chancellor that it was the lesser of two evils to have a high interest rate in order to keep the pound strong for the money people in the city (our best performing sector) and to keep inflation in check than to pander to the shrinking manufacturing sector.

Indeed, with the new governor having to deal with the repercussions of wildly optimistic forecasts of growth both in the past and the near future, the likelihood is that our interest rates will have to go up making our entry into the euro less likely. - David Preston, Darlington.