I DON'T see why Prince Charles should not speak his mind. He is Prince of Wales, but still a citizen of our country. He cares for the countryside and country life.

The Government is bestriding beautiful Yorkshire with great ugly pylons. What do our MPs say? Nothing.

Charles is right to condemn political correctness.

This Government is inept. It can't maintain law and order. It can't put policemen on the streets. It can't stem the flow of unwanted immigrants. It can't mete out justice in the courts. - Jim Ross, Rowlands Gill, Tyne and Wear.

POLITICAL DEBATE

THE continual sniping by one political party's supporter against another in this column can be annoying. It does, however, truly allow all sides to be heard.

Pro-Labour correspondents continually blame the Tories for everything that is wrong because of the 18 years of Tory rule, while Tory supporters castigate Labour for being incompetent. The Lib Dems just blame both the other parties for everything.

It would make more sense if, whichever party were in power, looked to its own affairs and did not try to pass the buck of blame to others, especially when it was well into its term in office.

Their supporters should follow suit, putting things that happened years ago to rest. Likewise, opposition parties should concentrate on good, clear, constructive opposition; building up the nation rather than trying to tear down their rivals. Their supporters should concentrate on positive suggestions for action that could be taken rather than slating others all the time.

Constant bad mouthing of each other through correspondence columns at times reads like squabbles in the playground. - EA Moralee, Billingham.

IRAQ

YOUR comment (Echo, Sept 25) asserts that there is no proof that Saddam Hussein was planning to pass on his frightening array of weaponry.

The fact he is producing them in defiance of UN resolutions must question the integrity and rationale of those who oppose the very fact he will soon be developing such weapons and the means to deliver them.

This is not a man who will ever be trusted and the basis of whether he will or he won't is not what is at stake. It is the threat to millions of people's lives at stake.

You state if the UN is to have any relevance in the 21st Century it has to have the guts to tackle a government that has defied it for 11 years. The fact it does not have the guts is more to the point and the relevant fact is the right to defend oneself against such evil.

Those who make the point of Iraq's innocence should consider who it is that is murdering many thousands of its people. The UN has dithered and insulted us long enough.

As for the resolution concerning Israel. For how long has the UN failed to address the problem? Israel has a right to survive because if it had to rely on the UN it would not last five minutes.

There is a saying 'can't see the wood for the trees', that might be fine in a small town called Darlington, but it did not help these luckless souls on September 11. Is it to happen again, but on a much larger scale? - John Young, Crook.

COUNTRYSIDE MARCH

ON Sunday, September 22, over 400,000 protestors marched through the middle of London. Yet the BBC hardly mention it and those few mentions were flagrantly distorted. If the biggest demonstration in British history is not news, then what is? Why the ostentatious neglect? Obviously, because the Government found its message distasteful.

Now we have been presented with a dossier on the misdeeds of Saddam Hussein. How on earth are we to know if it is true? If it is anything like the BBC's reporting of the countryside march, inconvenient facts will have been omitted and vital issues distorted.

Will this Government never learn that spin is self-defeating and that honesty pays? - AC Arthur, Durham.

OPEN SPACES

I WOULD like to comment on the campaign to protect open spaces in Ferryhill. In Spennymoor the Liberal Democrats have been fighting this battle for a while.

Sedgefield Borough Council seems intent on giving planning permission to any application to build houses with no regard to the needs of the local community or the local environment.

To fight to preserve open spaces is very important to both people and environment alike and the people of Ferryhill have our total support. - Martin Jones, Environment Spokesman, Liberal Democrats, Spennymoor Branch.

FIRE SERVICE

THE wages paid to firemen would appear to be in excess of wages paid to skilled manual workers and skilled tradesmen.

It has to be remembered the much vaunted training is paid for, as it is on the job training. The generous pension is only partly funded by the fireman's contribution and is paid much earlier than that of other workers.

The public does recognise the value of the firemen's work and I believe the public is already paying a very fair price for it. - Paul Duffy, Billingham.

CRIME FIGURES

IN a recently published leaflet, the Chief Constable of Cleveland gave details of the number of crimes committed over a certain period this year and also the number of those crimes which were detected.

By my calculation, the detection rate worked out at less than 17 per cent. Could this be the reason why yet again the police authority has told us that we will have to pay more for our policing?

Are we to believe that this extra money will improve the force's ability to detect crimes?

I do, however, have an idea to help with the present low detection rate. Call in Inspector Clouseau. He could not possibly do any worse and, at least that way, we would also have some entertainment for our money. - Joan McTigue, Middlesbrough.