Hear All Sides

Not a teacher, I have for the last 20 years been involved in local history, visiting schools from Middlesbrough to Darlington, Yarm to Hartlepool, and find the tables very divisive, as like for like are not shown.

All teachers do their finest work with the child 'material' available and it becomes obvious those in new or leafy-lane schools, where parents take interest in their child's future, cannot be compared with an urban or inner town, where social deprivation and ethnic groups are part of the picture.

If this was taken into consideration a fairer picture would emerge.

Over the years I've seen the workload of teachers almost double, working from 8.30am to late evening, many schools being almost a branch of the social services and strangled by paperwork.

Wouldn't it be great if MPs were similarly tabled and printed for attendance, speaking and success on local issues during a parliamentary session?

If it's good enough for our children let's get a real picture of the work of our MPs. - R Harbron, Stockton.

DRUG LAWS

RAY Mallon (Echo, Dec 6) suggests the legalising of certain crimes is not an option and the use of drugs becoming so prevalent should not be an excuse to give up the fight.

While I agree that legalising drugs, especially hard drugs should never happen, I would like to know what kind of measures Ray Mallon would advocate and whether the cost of fighting this scourge is a bottomless pit.

The problem with many issues in this country is the fact there are too many with good intentions and fine ideas and not enough people willing to listen to the majority of us who are tired and fed up of irresponsible, pseudo-idealism that is dragging the nation into the gutter.

The children of today have been let down by irresponsible, self-righteous humbug and unless the evil of drugs is tackled with draconian laws and a punishment that fits the evil that drugs personifies then Ray Mallon and his views are nothing but the same old rhetoric.

It is time to give the people of this country the justice and stability they have fought and toiled for over the centuries. - John Young, Crook.

SUNDERLAND AFC

LAST Tuesday, 5,500 Sunderland football fans travelled at great cost (just before the expensive Christmas period) to give their unrivalled support to their side in a Worthington Cup tie at Sheffield United.

Such support at a winter midweek game is absolutely phenomenal.

Their reward for such undying loyalty? Their club plays a reserve team which loses 2-0 to an average First Division side courtesy of a display which lacked both passion and class.

Why was nothing said about playing a second choice XI before the tickets went on sale? People bought tickets on the understanding that there would be a first choice team trying to get to the final and win a place in Europe at the final in Cardiff next March.

Surely fans have a case for a breach of the Trades Descriptions Act?

To add insult to injury to those of us who travelled to a game which clearly meant nothing to the hierarchy of SAFC, not one single employee of Sunderland Football Club has said: "Thank you very much indeed for your superb support at Bramall Lane. We really appreciated it and apologise for the dreadful performance that you all witnessed."

Another example that fans mean less and less. - Stephen Carney, Sunderland.

COUNCIL FINANCES

THE Government has increased council funding in the North-East for the next financial year, on average by 8 per cent. But I see that some, including Tony Flynn, leader of Newcastle City Council, are still not satisfied.

Mr Flynn, if you cannot manage on an increase of six per cent you should really consider stepping down and letting more frugal people do a proper job that you are intimating you are not capable of. After all, the rate of inflation is around two per cent.

With regard to Wear Valley District Council, it has secured a rise of 9.9 per cent so I am sure that the council tax for the district will surely not increase, in fact a cut should be possible, but is that expecting too much from this ever-charging council?

A spokesman for Durham County Council states: "We are certainly a long way off forecasting what effect it may have on next year's council tax bills." Well, I will help you out after a massive, unjustified 14.8 per cent increase last year, the answer is "No" to any increase because you cannot possible justify one and the majority of people in County Durham cannot afford it, if you can understand that.

Many people are on fixed wages and therefore cannot find extra money to waste on dysfunctional overspending councils.

If we get a regional assembly I hope it will be worked out to save thousands of pounds for the area and not be another tier of money-grabbing wasters.

If it does not save substantial amounts to the benefit of the area, then forget it. - RL Groves, Crook.

FIRE DISPUTE

WITH reference to the firefighters dispute, we once again have to listen to our sanctimonious MPs talking their usual claptrap.

They are keen on telling us that most firefighters have two jobs. This may be true, but what a person does in their own time is up to them.

I suppose our MPs only have one job. Oh no, I sometimes read that apart from being an MP for three days a week some are also newspaper columnists, company directors, consultants to whoever pays them a fee and no doubt sit on well paid committees.

Good heavens, firefighters only have two jobs. - Jeff Ashton, Darlington.