Hear All Sides

IDENTITY CARDS

WHAT is all the fuss over the idea of a national identity card system. We all carried one during the 1939-45 war years for security reasons.

The latest terrorist outrages in America will have given most people food for thought. ID cards may not be a bad idea after all.

We all live in a very unstable world, another piece of plastic in your pocket may not stop all terrorist attacks but it will certainly send warning signals out to those using false passports, and may lower the crime rate.

The advantages of having an ID card would certainly outweigh any disadvantages. The do-gooders in our society say an ID system would infringe human rights. In a recent poll 85 per cent were in favour of ID cards so it appears that the only ones having their rights infringed are the 15 per cent who have something to hide.

If you have nothing to hide you have nothing to worry about. - Jack Amos, Willington.

SHARON Griffiths (Echo, Sept 26) misses the point of the civil liberties objections to ID cards. It is not having a card that we object to, but the associated laws.

I would not like to get a criminal record and a hefty fine because I nipped out in the car to B&Q to get a few screws.

The police are already struggling to cope with the current level of crime, so checking ID cards would be an unwelcome additional duty.

The objections to ID cards have promoted all sorts of stories. One Sunday newspaper informs us we will not have to carry them but show them to get admission to hospitals and schools. So if you are going to have an accident, remember to take your card.

This looks like a very expensive, pointless exercise since it will have negligible effect on the battle against terrorism.

The most important question is how do you get an ID card - what evidence do you present when there are millions of false National Insurance numbers, driving licences and passports. - Brian Fiske, Chairman, Liberal Democrats, Darlington.

FIREWORKS

I WONDER if someone could give one good reason other than profit why shops should be allowed to sell fireworks.

Our Friday evening was ruined by a gang of some 25 teenagers who spent about three hours aimlessly roaming the area and setting off bangers near a busy road, in a phone box etc. And this in September.

The following morning, I heard another huge bang and looked out to see smoke pouring from a post box.

This has absolutely nothing to do with visual display, long-forgotten connection with November 5 or any other excuse - it is simply an easy way of having fun with bangs, the louder the better.

Why do Darlington police allow such large, intimidating gangs to roam our streets every night? - G Carr, Darlington.

WAR ON TERRORISM

WHAT is the role of an MP? Fred Copley (HAS, Sept 25) argues that warnings from some MPs about disproportionate action by the US should not have been uttered.

But the Archbishop of Westminster is also on record saying that action should be proportionate and practical, aimed at justice not revenge, the guilty not the innocent.

He argues that "notions of total and sustained war against terrorism carry the danger of unrestrained escalation and perpetration of the conflict, and the multiplying of enemies in future generations". The criticised MPs made similar points.

There is no doubt that, as well as our people dying in New York, our soldiers will die fighting alongside the Americans. We owe it to them to be clear about the consequences of any actions before they are taken. - Robin Ashby, Newcastle.

WITH a brother in Her Majesty's Forces and family in Brooklyn, New York, I find Hugh Pender (HAS, Sep 27) and the rest of the recent do-gooders' contributions crass and smug.

The Western world (not just the US) has supported the lesser of two evils in many dirty localised conflicts since 1945, mainly to stop the spread of the ever-failing Communism or crackpot regime.

The small but very vocal do-gooder brigade has forced political correctness and civil liberties to the limits and removed discipline, good manners and the Great from Britain.

Don't let the perpetrators of the recent atrocities see any chink in our armour or this will be a very long war.

The line was drawn in the sand on September 11. Choose on which side you want to stand, but remember this, we all know the sorts who shout the odds from the sanctuary of a free country. The sorts who will quite happily see others fight the good fight for Western freedom, while they hide away. - J Tague, Bishop Auckland.

WHEN the bombing atrocity in New York is said to be akin to Pearl Harbour, one must remember just what things were like in 1941.

Hitler had conquered the whole of Europe and there was little chance of Britain defeating him. At that time, many German and Irish Americans were on Hitler's side and, although the Americans would supply us with aid, the prospect of entering the war against Hitler was nil.

If Pearl Harbour had not happened, then, in the long run, Russia would have defeated Germany and the whole of Europe would have been communist, instead of just the eastern countries like Poland.

America never declared war on Germany. When Pearl Harbour occurred, it declared war on Japan - and Hitler made his biggest mistake. Since Japan was his ally, he declared war on America, and so the war was shortened from the estimate of ten years to five. - E Reynolds, Wheatley Hill.