FOOT-AND-MOUTH

THE Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has come up with the policy of spraying every vehicle with disinfectant to stop the spread of foot-and-mouth disease. I sometimes wonder why.

When I travel around rural areas and main roads, what do I see? Sheep and cattle in fields directly next to country roads and main roads. These animals are within one metre of the public walking and driving these country roads.

Surely if all the footpaths are closed to the public in these zones, farmers and Defra can enforce clear zones of a minimum of 350 metres between all roads and sheep and cattle.

Surely the entrance to all farms is where the spraying should be taking place, but has not been, and not our cars. - FD Bell, Wolsingham.

I HAVE read John Dean's series of articles on the future of farming with interest. It is obviously a good idea to move away from intensive farming towards more environmentally friendly systems of land management.

But is there not a danger that this green and fertile land will become a rural theme park/nature reserve, while we import most of our food?

This would defeat the object, as it would lead to higher greenhouse gas emissions, increased packaging and processing, and greater use of chemical additives and agrichemicals.

For the sake of the environment, human health, animal welfare and food safety and quality, the best way to produce meat is to raise animals outdoors, feed them a natural diet, move them the shortest possible distance to an abattoir, and distribute the meat locally.

Farms which have used these methods are more likely than giant factory farms to go permanently out of business under the onslaught of BSE, FMD and economic constraints. Ironically, they are also the least likely to have played a part in the emergence of BSE and the rapid spread of FMD. - P Winstanley, Chester-le-Street.

TONY Blair may have been blessed with a fat pay rise, but ordinary Britons are being asked to make financial sacrifices.

And the oppressed souls they are, they may just meekly accept it.

These are brutal times in Britain. Perhaps more than 250,000 people have been laid off in the past four years. Yet the Labour Government's response has been one of almost total apathy. This is disgraceful.

As champion of the working-class, it behoves the Labour Government to stand up in defence of the right to work of the poor British people, and not to ignore their growing problems for their own tendentious reasons.

Dare I suggest excessive internationalism is the cause of Britain's ills? Tony Blair is not a gambling man. But were he, a selective exclusion of foreign made goods from British markets and a reduction of foreign imports might just do the trick.

By ensuring that our manufactured goods are, wherever possible, produced in British factories, employing British workers, he could ensure that unemployment in this land is brought to an end, thereby ending the criminal waste of having a hidden army of more than four million jobless Brits.

The modern British problem seems to be a lack of ability to place one's people first. Tragic really. - Aled Jones, Bridlington.

EUROPEAN INTEGRATION

THOSE of us who remember Yes Prime Minister will recall the contents of the British sausage. Anyone eating a German sausage with a very high prime meat content will be more than happy for offal-and-rusk to be properly labelled.

Similarly, anyone savouring high cocoa content Belgian chocolate knows it is a far cry from the vegetable oil insipid British stuff which carries the same name.

Proper labelling and standardised standards are essential to the working of a free market by levelling the playing field and giving consumers more information and choice.

A Blenkinsop (HAS, Sept 5) also asks about pension costs for new entrants to the EU. As with existing members these are solely a matter for national governments. It is a basic principle of the European Union that power rests at the lowest possible level consistent with open markets.

We are in Europe and have been since 1975. Living standards have soared and our exports to Europe have multiplied. We are better off.

We will have a desired referendum if it is clearly in the interests of people and country for Britain to join the Euro.

As for immigration, studies show that over the 20 years Britain is actually going to be short of young people needed to keep basic services going. - Robin Ashby, Secretary, North-East in Europe.

ROAD TAX

WHEN is something going to be done about people who will not pay road tax? Everywhere I travel I see vehicles either not displaying a tax disc or displaying an out of date disc.

Some people seem to think that when a tax disc expires they have a period of grace to renew it. If they look closely at it they will see it expires at the end of the month, not two weeks after.

I wonder if these untaxed cars are insured. Unfortunately, if you are involved in an accident with one of these cars you will find out that they probably are not.

In my area there are quite a few untaxed vehicles being used, some people having more than one, but they seem to get away with it.

Probably one reason they do get away with it is because when they buy a vehicle the DVLA won't be informed about a change of ownership.

If a vehicle has no tax, an owner is by law supposed to fill in a statutory off-road notice and send it to the DVLA so if the police got involved they would be able to charge these people with at least two offences.

But it doesn't seem to happen, especially in my area. I think that the DVLA should have a Shop a Dodger phone number and then something might get done. - Frank Headen, Bowburn.