RECESSION

THE news that the manufacturing sector of the economy is in recession (Echo, Aug 7) shows the Government's boasts about abolishing boom and bust to be garbage. It is almost as if Tony Blair thinks he can hold back the tides of the economy just by telling it to, like a political King Canute. We cannot trust a word this Government says.

Since the 1970s manufacturing output as a percentage of national income has declined from 30 to 20 per cent. This has accelerated since this Government came to power. Examples are the job losses over the past four years at places like Fujitsu, Rothmans, Black and Decker, Electrolux, Glaxo, Sanyo, Corus and many others, with the loss of up to 10,000 more over the next year. An economy cannot just exist on the service sector alone.

That is why we need immediate and wide ranging reform of the Barnett Formula so the North-East to be able to weather this storm. - Martin Jones, secretary, Spennymoor Branch, Liberal Democrats.

PETROL PRICES

ON your front page (Echo, Aug 8), the Dump the Pump spokesman advocates a windfall tax on the oil companies. The RAC agrees, pointing out that British motorists have the most expensive petrol in Europe and possibly on the planet.

I wonder on what planet these people are living. The fact is that about 80 per cent of the price of petrol goes to the Treasury in tax. A mere 20 per cent to everyone else involved. It is not rocket science, therefore, to work out that the profiteering on the sale of petrol is by the Government and what the oil companies make in other areas is irrelevant. If people want cheaper petrol it is obvious who the target should be. - K O'Brien, Ferryhill.

RAY MALLON

WHY should a police officer of the stature and distinction of Ray Mallon even contemplate resigning from the police force (Echo, Aug 9)? He will be throwing away many years of pensioned service all due to the unbelievable situation created by a local police inquiry which has taken longer than World War One and still not arrived at any sensible solution.

The general public need a man of his calibre, for who else would swear to cut crime by 20 per cent and offer to resign if not successful.

That was the promise given and the outcome was that the crime figures were reduced by more than 20 per cent. How many other officers would offer such a commitment and more importantly, keep their promises?

If the reason for his resignation is purely financial, then the grateful taxpayers of Teesside (thankful for the reduction in crime) would contribute to any fund raised and no doubt other policemen would also help. - E Reynolds, Wheatley Hill.

PUNISHMENT

I FIND your worries about the compensation culture strange (Echo, July 30) when this culture has been encouraged by the media and the establishment.

I can understand the claims of the police officers caught up in the Bradford riots. The officers were made to put on kid gloves and then had to put up with thugs and morons hell bent on death and destruction.

Rioters should be given a warning of the consequences of their behaviour and then, if the warning is ignored, they should be stamped on hard, quickly and with whatever means necessary.

It is fine to suggest that these people have a grievance but that does not excuse the behaviour we have witnessed. Unless we stop the sanctimonious waffle, we could see many people dying and destruction on a grand scale.

Your leader writer can't have his cake and eat it. - John Young, Crook.

Catherine Brandley, a teacher for 20 years, has had to pay a nine-year-old boy £100 and do 100 hours community service for reprimanding him by poking him in the chest for firing staples in class (Echo, July 31).

This teacher was just doing her job because the staples could have easily blinded another pupil. What then?

In my school days, punishment for unruly pupils consisted of being rapped over the knuckles or hit behind the knees with a ruler. We were also caned and some teachers would throw a wooden blackboard duster at us.

If today's teachers adopted similar tactics for unruly pupils, many would be doing time for GBH. How sad. - TE Crook, Bishop Auckland.

THE ELDERLY

ONE social group gets no respect on any occasion: the very elderly. Think of the way they are characterised in television's soap operas as figures of fun - what I call the "Percy Sugden Syndrome".

And yet who could make better role models for the very young than the very old?

I suggest that at school, along with the all the other interesting things they learn there, children should learn about the heroism of the war generation; and to see the all-too evident frailty of its surviving members against a background of what happened 60 years ago. Children might then leave school with some idea of what life is about. - T Kelly, Crook.