Hear All sides: Black and Decker

When added to the 650 jobs lost at Electrolux and the 450 lost at Rothmans, it is time for the Government to take immediate action.

I have already started a jobs petition which calls for Sedgefield Borough to be granted Enterprise Zone status, to attract new business into the area.

We need the Government to redirect civil service and call centre jobs to this region.

I also agree with your comment column (Echo, Oct 4) that it would be better to encourage growth of local firms by offering government industrial grants to firms with potential.

I have called for an update of the Barnett Formula. Not only do we require larger industrial grants, but it also applies to education, the NHS and tourism, etc. We need government action now to help this region alleviate many pockets of social deprivation. - Councillor Ben Ord, Liberal Democrat, Spennymoor Ward.

ON one page (Echo, Oct 4) we had the Prime Minister sucking up to Bill Clinton at the Labour Party Conference while, on the opposite page, we had news that really showed the Labour Party in its true light - supervising the decline of the North-East with the announcement that hundreds more jobs are to disappear right on Tony Blair's doorstep. Instead of crawling around ex-presidents and fawning over film stars, isn't it about time that Mr Blair and his colleagues did the job they were elected to do? - Mrs J Watson, Washington.

How ironic that (Echo, Oct 4) on one page you had the continued euphoria at the Labour Party Conference and the attack by Bill Clinton on the 'compassionate' Tories. Then, on the next page, you show the plight of Spennymoor, which is indicative of how compassionate New Labour is.

Earlier in the conference, during his full-of-platitudes, keynote speech, Tony Blair bragged about what has been accomplished in his own constituency.

Of course, money is being spent there. The influence is obvious.

Mr Blair must have known at the time that the Black & Decker story was about to break but it would, of course, have been damaging to mention it.

It is a pity that Labour puts so much time and energy into trying to do away with hunting with hounds because it is said to be cruel, but is apparently so little concerned when a large community is dealt so cruel a blow. - RK Bradley, Darlington.

IT was very sad to read (Echo, Oct 5) the Prime Minister's response to the job losses at Black & Decker at Spennymoor.

To say it's the world we live in will not go down very well in this Labour stronghold.

My deepest sympathy goes out to yet more loyal Labour voters and all the other workers who have lost jobs since 1997.

Let's hope that someone can come up with employment for these people, not just more meeting points and talking shops and the promise yet again of money being made available in the next four years, or in the next Parliament. - DJ Brown, Durham.

YOUR comment about Black & Decker (Echo, Oct 4) suggests the fault lies at the door of someone else.

The fact is that we cannot kid ourselves that we are in good hands and that our economy is thriving to the point that money is like manna from heaven and that we are the chosen people.

Private industry has been stripped bare by a constant demand for the good times in life without concerning ourselves with the reality of the real world.

We are paying ourselves above what we are earning and have always relied on foreigners to bail us out. There is talk of huge sums of money being ploughed into our service industries, social security and other bottomless pits, while ignoring that such measures depend on the ability to pay for them.

The Northern Echo has stated, after Tony Blair's speech, that rhetoric is one thing, substance is another. That substance cannot be maintained unless we earn and compete on terms better than our competitors.

Your comment concludes that, in the world of big business, the laws of economics hold more sway than sentimentality. It is time someone told our politicians so.

I do not believe any of the political parties have the courage or the acumen to lead the country, and that failure and uncertainty is the only thing they have to offer. - John Young, Crook.

THE transfer of Black & Decker jobs to the Czech Republic comes soon after the loss of jobs in the Prudential operations in Reading in favour of Bombay, and the plans of Dyson to relocate their operations to supposedly cheaper locations in Malaysia.

The scenario for their relocation from Great Britain is the same in all cases - to reduce their manufacturing costs for their primary products.

I have no argument with this proposal, if the end result was to lower the costs to the consumer. But I suspect that the only beneficiary will be to the so-called shareholder value. In other words, any savings which may be achieved will not be seen in lower prices at the retailers.

I therefore propose an informal boycott of Black & Decker, of the Prudential, of Dyson and of any other company who deserts our shores in the illusory quest for savings and which results in the destruction of British jobs.

This will serve as a warning that we, the British public, will act in what we see as our own best interests and the interests of our economy. - Mike Cunningham, Durham City.

IT'S very easy to put all the blame on Black & Decker for the job losses at Spennymoor.

But surely consumers must share in this. Jobs are lost because people are buying cheaper imports in preference to home-produced goods.

Black & Decker must seek to reduce their costs in one of the few ways open to them. - Peter W Elliott, Eaglescliffe.