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ACADEMY OF LIGHT

IN recent times, Sunderland AFC have brought an unprecedented level of positive publicity to the City of Sunderland and the greater North-East via their vast improvement in standards on and off the football pitch.

Due to worldwide satellite TV coverage and global media interest, SAFC's footballing exploits and futuristic home ground have done more to help promote the city and the region than any multi-million pound advertising campaign could ever hope to achieve.

It is now welcome news to hear that Sunderland AFC's proposals for their second world-class venue, The Sunderland Academy of Light, are likely to go through after initial Governmental and South Tyneside Planning Department approval was scuppered by a 6-5 "against" vote by South Tyneside councillors.

The planned Academy of Light would give Sunderland possibly the best training and youth academy facilities in Europe, better than those of the continental super-clubs and the likes of Man United, Liverpool, Arsenal and Middlesbrough, who have class-leading bases in England. It will help SAFC attract top class players and the most precocious young talent.

Now let us see the Academy of Light enhance Sunderland's burgeoning reputation as a world class footballing venue. - Brian Leng, Tom Lynn, Co-Editors, The Wearside Roar.

IRA

DID anybody in their senses really think that the IRA was likely to destroy its weapons for Tony Blair, who has about as much influence within Irish Republicanism as Postman Pat?

I assuredly did not. It's distressing to read of Northern Ireland's recent spate of violence.

How can New Labour stand by and watch it happen? I was outraged that the hardline Unionists did not call off their bullyboys. I used to think there was only a military solution to the Ulster situation. Now I'm not so sure Irish reunification isn't the answer. - Aled Jones, Bridlington.

FAITH

THE reality of heaven is, like belief in God, a matter of faith and experience. A creator God who is the source of everything should have no difficulty in finding enough suitable real estate for the new Jerusalem in our expanding universe if, as your correspondents suggest (HAS, Jul 12 and 14) it is to be a physical and not a spiritual or some "other" existence.

The New Testament has a lot to say about who gets into heaven, but one of the main Bible themes is that God will judge the earth, not like a human judge, relying on evidence and witnesses but as an infallible, omniscient and merciful judge. You can be sure there will be no miscarriages of justice in this court .

The Christian at least has the assurance that our lives are not lived out in some meaningless vacuum eventually ending in oblivion, but that they have purpose, meaning and value. - R Morris, Crook.

EUROPE

DIANA Wallis' letter in favour of direct taxation from Europe (HAS, Jul 13) reveals the true nature of the Liberal Democrats' high taxation and European integrationist agenda.

Her reasons are vacuous and ignore totally the political implications of direct taxation from Europe. She uses trendy political buzz words such as "transparency" and "connection" but fails to understand that people don't want to be taxed by an unelected European body simply so that they can feel more "connected" with it.

We want Europe to do less and do it better. Any individual or party that suggests otherwise clearly misunderstands the importance of representation and taxation going hand in hand. - Martin Callanan MEP, Conservative, North-East Region.

DIANA Wallis is nave in the extreme in her support for an EU direct tax on its citizens (HAS, Jul 13).

Initially, UK taxpayers would not pay any extra tax - and how long does she think that situation would last?

Firstly, Gordon Brown, faced with a shortfall, would increase UK tax to cover the money lost to Brussels.

Secondly, the EU, having found a marvellous way to raise new money, would increase the EU tax to fund its ever-increasing over-ambitious schemes.

Presently, the UK budget to the EU amounts to £7bn and successive Chancellors have fought against any increase in that figure.

If individual citizens have to pay an EU tax, who is going to fight for them against any future increases? Nobody, because there would not be anybody to exercise control over the EU.

With regard to the European Social Fund grants, they are not giving us anything. All we are getting is some of our own money back.

As for an EU tax making us feel more connected to the EU. In fact all it would do is increase the loathing for EU. It would certainly guarantee a note vote on any referendum on the euro. - K Peacock, Darlington.

OBJECTIVE BURMA

IN light of some of the recent Hollywood films in which it appears that, seemingly, the Americans won the Second World War single-handed, my thoughts turn to the 1945 film Objective Burma, starring Errol Flynn.

This film was not screened in Britain for some years because of objections by the British Burma Veterans. Having seen this film many times and noting its similarity in story content to the 1940 film Northwest Passage - a small group against an enemy enclave and their struggle for survival thereafter - Objective Burma seems to be a fictional adventure film, well acted out and pieced together.

What I would possibly object to, however, was the force of arms employed by the Americans in the closing stages of the film that appears to depict an American invasion of Burma to drive out the Japanese.

The question is, was there any truth at all connected to the real life events as depicted in the film Objective Burma? - GH Grieveson, Richmond.