Hear all sides

LORD Haskins says farmers should take part-time jobs to supplement their income (Echo, Aug 15). Perhaps he's not aware that we were told to diversify several years ago and most of us did.

Not only do I work around the farm, but I also have a job. My son farms at home and also runs his fencing business in between lambing, calving, hay time and all the other jobs around the farm.

Perhaps Lord Haskins is a bit out of date with farming. If he wishes to come to the Weardale hills, I will personally give him a lesson on hill farming and see whether he would be able to survive on our income.

What Lord Haskins and the Government have not realised is that it has made us all the more determined to fight on and, in our community, and we are helping one another to try to survive the present crisis. - Maureen Gascoigne, Frosterley.

A RECENT contributor thought it strange I should suggest that farmers should refrain from blind allegiance to the Tory Party (HAS, Aug 4) especially when the North-East shows overwhelming support for Labour.

Does he not remember that, for 18 years, the Tory Government presided over the destruction of the mining, steel and shipbuilding industries?

Is it little wonder the word Tory is anathema to people in the North-East, Scotland and Wales? - Hugh Pender, Darlington.

RECENT news stories suggest:

l Foot-and-mouth has been spread only between contiguous farms or by animals, people and vehicles moving between more distant farms.

l There has been no case anywhere of the disease being spread by members of the public using footpaths.

l The present and future losses to the tourist industry are many times greater than those to the farming industry.

l Animals do recover from the disease, though their value - particularly for export - is reduced by it.

l The "light" lambs now to be slaughtered in the UK will have a more humane end than they would have had if exported live to the Continent just to be slaughtered on arrival.

The lesson appears to be that any future outbreak should be controlled by restrictions on inter-farm movements, not by slaughter and footpath closures. If farmers wish to vaccinate their stock and/or insure against losses resulting from foot-and-mouth, they should do so as a matter of business policy.

Our sentimental attachment to livestock farming (which I share) should perhaps be tempered by a more hard-headed calculation that its food production role is less important economically than its environmental conservation role. It may be more sensible to subsidise the conservation but not the food production. - John Hawgood, Durham City.

THE European Union is footing about 60 per cent of the compensation bill for farmers suffering during the foot-and-mouth crisis. Presumably, this is one instance when we could be grateful for our membership of the EU.

Euro sceptics are often keen to attack Europe, alleging that the relationship is an expensive waste of UK taxpayers' money. In fact, waste and fraud are words commonly used to attack Europe, yet it was the European Commission's food and veterinary office that first announced two months ago that it had concerns about the UK compensation scheme. As a result, the anti-fraud office of the commission has been called in.

If this investigation should unearth anything untoward, payments could be stopped. As the bill already exceeds £2bn and rising, UK taxpayers should count their lucky stars that the EU is there to ensure their money is being spent wisely. - Diana Wallis, LibDem MEP, Yorkshire and the Humber.

GENOA

YOUR correspondent (HAS, Aug 7) tries to insult us with the suggestion that it was the Genoa leaders and the police who were the thugs and that the so-called demonstrators were the real heroes.

The Italian police were far from perfect, but were simply giving as good as they got. At least we don't hear that they are going to sue the taxpayer.

Any government worth its salt has a duty to protect its society. By resorting to violence, one should conclude that the protestors have no rational argument or any sort of intelligence. Maybe we could learn something from the Italian police. - J Young, Crook.

THANKS

ON BEHALF of Macmillan Cancer Relief, I would like to thank all those athletes who took part in the 10km road race at Croft Circuit on August 8 and especially those who sought support from sponsors in aid of Macmillan.

All the money raised will go specifically to Macmillan's Voice for Durham Appeal to improve services for cancer patients and their families in the county.

Macmillan is very grateful to Andrea Adams of the Chester-le-Street athletics club for organising the event, Croft Circuit for hosting it and Blackett, Hart and Pratt for sponsoring it. - Caroline Peacock, Macmillan Cancer Relief.