NORTHERN IRELAND

YOUR editorial (Echo, Sept 4) serves to illustrate the results of bigotry and hatred ingrained from birth between the two communities in Northern Ireland.

What kind of pond life would stoop to the kind of intimidation shown to school kids in any other part of the world?

How many more millions of pounds of taxpayers' money are to be spent keeping one half of this province from killing the other half and how much better could it have been spent?

The problem is that I don't think that those involved in the hatred have the intelligence to know or care what the rest of the world thinks of them. - Chris Greenwell, Newton Aycliffe.

THE leader writer is being naive and blinkered in his conclusion on the Holy Cross School in Belfast (Echo, Sept 4).

Children should be allowed to go the quickest way to the school of their parents' choice. Under normal circumstances that may be true, but the situation in Northern Ireland is not normal.

The problems in Northern Ireland cannot be solved by such PR exercises and what seems to be a lack of imagination. Nor will it be solved until the arms decommissioning and the unwillingness of the IRA to implement its side of the bargain, once and for all.

Then there is the problem of which side of the fence one is sitting. The Protestant community wishes to stay in the UK while the nationalist community wishes to be part of Southern Ireland and the crux of the matter is how do you solve such an issue?

We can wait until one community out-votes the other but then will the Protestants accept that? I think not.

We can let them get at it and the strongest side wins. That may not a very nice scenario but it seems the only one Northern Ireland understands. - John Young, Crook.

CONSERVATIVE LEADERSHIP

I AM now convinced Hugh Pender (HAS, Sep 4) is part of a very good Northern Echo editorial wind up team.

Well I'm a self professed lover of the North-East and its people, and I say the Labour Party should be challenged in its heartland if promises are broken.

You correctly point out that "working people won't give up their taste of the good life", so do you think it acceptable for jobs to be lost on a weekly basis under Labour?

There is nothing shrewd about Gordon Brown's fiscal policies. He simply hasn't spent anything, but continues to fleece the ordinary working man.

Anyone who liked old Labour, simply can't fully support Tony Blair's regime.

So you now love the man who despises old Labour. As an ex-serviceman, let's hope another darkest hour never descends on this great nation, the shortest list in British history is that of Labour MPs who have served their country. They all saw service in the Royal Standbacks.

To be gratified about getting Tory backs up, when men are losing their jobs all around you, speaks volumes of your understanding of working class values. - J Tague, Bishop Auckland.

IT is nice to realise that the Conservative Party can rely on Hugh Pender (HAS, Sept 1) for some intellectual advice on how they should vote in that election issue. It should be remembered that his own political party spent some 18 years in virtual obscurity despite Hugh Pender's exhortations to the public for socialist support during that period.

I am sure the Conservatives will sort themselves out politically and form the government of the country once again, though this will of course take time.

I can't somehow see our continental cousins seeking leadership from Tony Blair and the UK at the present time or even in the future.

Our National Health Service, railways, roads and educational shortcomings are not going to inspire them to accept UK leadership and the totally inept handling of the foot-and-mouth epidemic beggars belief.

Let's face it, the French don't particularly admire the British and there is still much ill-feeling about Germany and the two wars costing millions of lives that they were responsible for in the last century. Let us run our own affairs. - Name and address supplied.

ASYLUM SEEKERS

I SPEAK from the hearts of many people who are so confused as to the outcome of the asylum seekers' situation.

History repeats itself in many ways and the spiralling of the refugee situation is surely a sign that the human race has got to get its act together and to stop fostering hate.

Surely, the powers that be can unite in one accord and put into action a humane way of solving this problem.

We are each born under the same tent and if you think about it, this present situation could well be a testing point, giving us yet another chance to make our peace with God.

If each of us stopped to ponder - there, but for the grace of God, go I. - M Skelton, D Aspley.

RUSSIAN CONVOYS

I ENJOYED reading the story on the 60th anniversary of the Russian Convoy (Echo, Sept 1). I am a Scot and Cdr Grenfell said the men of the Russian convoy are recognised as heroes in Russia.

Not by the Ministry of Defence and their civil servants or for that matter the British MPs. They could not even send our Merchant Navy seamen to the celebrations.

Our merchant seamen, as civilians, lost their clothes when they lost their ship, their wages were stopped, they had to buy their own clothes and still pay union fees. There were no wards, only a frozen pension, for saving their shipmates' lives. - JW Taylor, Russian Convoy and Far East Veteran, Middlesbrough.

ANIMAL WELFARE

IT is to be hoped that the RSPCA is able to prosecute the callous slaughtermen and that, as the Green Party said, this long drawn-out episode of FMD, with all its horrors, will trigger a more humane approach to livestock farming (Echo, Sept 3).

But the buck stops at the consumer. As long as meat consumers do not speak up for better conditions for the living creatures who provide the chops and sausages etc for their plates, bad farming practices will continue and so will diseases, mass killings and burials etc.

Intensive farming of pigs, poultry and fish is a proven disease-creator - in humans and animals - as well as being a cruel system.

Animals rights people are usually gagged by the Government, NFU and other vested interests.

It's time more meat consumers spoke up on behalf of much better farming practices, and less trucking, burning and burying.

Let Tony Blair hear you and trust the Government and all will learn to do the right thing.

I'd like to thank The Northern Echo, Harry Mead and John Dean for Eco pages and his articles, for all helping so much towards a better world. - EM Johnson, Crook.

WING-WALKING

ON your front page (Echo, Aug 28) there was an article about a gentleman aged 81 called Jim Ellis-Beech. He was described as starting his day with a walk - on the wing of a biplane.

Isn't it about time that this method of riding on an aeroplane stopped being called 'wing-walking' by journalists.

Someone who is strapped to a rig on top of a mainplane can hardly be walking the wing when all they do is stand there waving to the crowd like a lemon.

I believe the practice started in the US during the Barnstorming days. A passenger got out and went from one wingtip to the next, some even stepped across to another aeroplane. It stopped when people started leaving the aircraft without a parachute and dying as they came in violent contact with the ground.

Now the passenger stands strapped to a rig while the aeroplane is flown around the field.

So please, call it something else. It must contravene the Trade Descriptions Act otherwise. - ME Harris, Darlington.

DISABLED ACCESS

RECENTLY, I had to wheel my wife in her wheelchair round two public buildings in the region.

One was the splendid refurbished City Museum in Sunderland, the other the brand new building replacing Dryburn Hospital in Durham.

No prizes for guessing which was wheelchair-friendly - the hospital is full of swing doors that don't even stay open if you push them, let alone open automatically like those in the museum. In the hospital the wheelchair pusher has to go backwards through the doors or rely on other kind people (of whom there are many, fortunately), to hold the doors open.

As you letter space is headed 'Hear All Sides' it would be nice if you get the hospital management to answer the point for once. - John Hawgood, Durham.