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MEANING OF LIFE

THOSE of us who do not believe in God or the afterlife do not live out our lives in "some meaningless vacuum" as R Morris suggests (HAS, July 21).

I think that the meaning and purpose of life is life itself; that this world is intrinsically wonderful, and does not require the enhancement of supernatural inventions; and that morality is a matter of responsibility - not to God, but to one another and to future generations.

Of course there are people whose love of life is founded upon their love of God, and whose compassion and sense of justice stem from their religious faith; but I wonder if there are others who fail to make the most of their lives because they hope for something better, or fear something worse, afterwards. - P Winstanley, Chester-le-Street.

AFTER reading the letter from B Langford (HAS, July 20), I came to the conclusion that your correspondent is a member of a false cult because reincarnation is not of Christian doctrines.

The Bible, which is the Christian's guide through life leading to heaven when life's journey is through, says in Hebrews 9 verse 27: "As it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgement". This is the judgement which leads humanity into hell, but Christ took man's judgement on the cross when he died and rose again and is in heaven making intercession for all men, that all might be saved from our sins.

John 3 verse 3 says: "Except a man be born again, he can not see the Kingdom of God", which is not reincarnation. - Thomas E Newton, Shildon.

UNION POWER

It appears that some union leaders are once again trying to determine Government's policy when their true function is to look after their members.

If a private company is contracted to build a hospital and then lease it to the Government, it sounds like good common sense. The hospital will still be run by qualified people medically and no jobs will be lost.

The union stance is a purely ideological one and they do not seem to have learnt the lesson that blind ideology leads to electoral disaster.

Mr Blair should tell the GMB and any other union which tries to dictate to the Government to look to the well-being of their members and let the Government govern. - Hugh Pender, Darlington.

LAMB

"Eat more lamb," says a Government minister (Echo, July 18). This should go down in history along with other political gaffes. Lamb today in Safeway is £11.69 per kg. How much of this goes to the farmer? How many pensioners can afford this? - JM Jackson, Yarm.

THE OLYMPICS

LAST week, the International Olympics Committee (IOC) voted in favour of China to host the 2008 Olympic Games. A few days before the decision I was visiting the IOC Headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland, as part of the inter-parliamentary meeting between the EU and Switzerland.

The Charter of the Olympic Games was prominently displayed at the HQ. It states a "goal to place sport at the service of harmonious development of humankind with the object of creating a peaceful society with the preservation of human dignity".

The European Parliament agreed recently that China's human rights record and its repression of minorities in places such as Tibet make it an inappropriate time to award the honour of hosting the Olympics to Beijing. In the light of its own Charter, I am disappointed at the IOC's decision.

I hoped to see calls for a fundamental change in China's policy on human rights before giving the country the Olympics. Now the deed is done, I hope that Beijing will instigate reforms before 2008 and show itself to be more worthy of the high honour of hosting such a prestigious sporting event. - Diana Wallis MEP, Liberal Democrat Party, Yorkshire and the Humber.

CHIN UP

MANY readers will have seen the Association of Children's Hospices (ACH) featured as one of GMTV's charities on its recent Get Up and Give Week.

The CHIN-UP Independent (not linked to adult hospices or hospitals) Children's Hospice Appeal is a member of the ACH and I write to ask your readers to consider supporting CHIN-UP during ACH's Children's Hospice Week which runs from September 22-29 this year.

Last year, in response to my request for Children's Hospice Week, hundreds of kind-hearted folks baked and sold butterfly buns for CHIN-UP. This year cheese scones for CHIN-UP has been suggested, but as long as you are supporting this excellent charity the choice is all yours! - Jack Charlton, Patron, Chin-Up, PO Box 18, Gosforth, Newcastle Upon Tyne, NE13 6YZ.

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

ONE cannot but envy the fortunate people of Japan as they walk around their clean and drug-free streets, enjoying their nation's prosperity, planning for a rosy future and being gloriously unaffected by western-style problems like teenage delinquency.

The simple truth is that Japan currently boasts the lowest crime rate of any industrial country - and it has retained the death penalty. Japan has an overall crime rate a mere quarter of the British average - yet it has more than twice Britain's population.

This statistic corresponds with a quality of life that some British OAPs might vaguely recall from the 1920s or 1930s and New Yorkers find totally unbelievable.

Is there, I ask, a direct connection between Japan being an almost crime-free society and the Japanese establishment's retention of the death penalty? You can bet your bottom ecu there is. And you can bet, too, that if Britain was to reintroduce capital punishment, the ever-increasing crime rate that currently threatens to engulf us would soon begin to fall off.

Come on, Mr Blair and all you parliamentarians, law-givers and pressure groups, find a way to bring back the ultimate deterrent - before crime runs out of control, and the Japs leave us all standing. - Aled Jones, Bridlington