Hear All Sides

PUBLIC DISORDER

"I'LL quell the riots", promised Home Secretary David Blunkett, who said he would think about using water cannon on rioters.

This was tough talk. Nothing else from David Blunkett, because now he has ruled out using them. Why?

If these riots had been in Northern Ireland, the Army would have been put into action and would have used rubber bullets, tear gas and water cannon to put the riot down. Other countries would also employ the same tactics to quell riots in which public property is destroyed and innocent citizens' lives put in danger.

The last Home Secretary, Jack Straw, was soft on crime and punishment. David Blunkett must not make the same mistake. He must get the kid gloves off and be tough on criminals.

The public want to see criminals punished, not seen on package holidays at the taxpayers' expense. - TE Crook, Bishop Auckland.

WIMBLEDON

THANK goodness Wimbledon is over for another year. BBC television has lost most of the football, cricket, rugby and golf and so it has to concentrate on a minority sport such as tennis. I know no one in Darlington who plays the game seriously.

In future years, can the programme be confined to the second week, on one channel only and give the ubiquitous Sue Barker a rest? - EC Francis, Darlington.

PETER MULLEN

ONCE again Peter Mullen (Echo, Jul 10) picks the easy targets to moan about - the railways and the NHS.

Truth to tell, the railways should probably never have been privatised. Dividing a large, rather inefficient service into many companies, made inter-communication and the transition ever more difficult.

The NHS is a bottomless pit. People expect even more. But there are a lot of hard-working, dedicated doctors and nurses out there doing their best anyway. - FM Atkinson, Shincliffe.

QUIXALL CROSSETT

I WAS delighted to see a photograph of Quixall Crossett (Echo, Jul 10) because I have always backed him.

It's a joke in the bookies, but I am sure he will win one day. He looks a lovely horse. - D Moore, Newton Aycliffe.

TILTING TRAINS

IN July 1972, I was privileged to be one of only three British journalists invited to the unveiling in Germany of the prototype of the then revolutionary diesel train with tilting body control.

For the demonstration, the company had prepared a test track of some distance and I can vouch for the fact that it was a complete success.

As far as I know, the system proved successful for Deutsch Bundesbahn, so why did we make a pig's ear of it in the 1980s and how confident can Sir Richard Branson be of success in this new venture? - CB Hunter, Sedgefield.

GM FOODS

THE report by the UN in determining that GM crops would break poverty in the Third World shows how far corporatism has reached.

On its knees to big business, the protection of the United Nations of peoples now must also bow down to "Greed instead of Need".

There has been created a spiral of further poverty, slavery and suicide because of the false promises made about GM. - C Bennett, Bishop Auckland.

THE COUNTRYSIDE

COULD Hugh Pender (HAS, Jul 7) please help me track down Dr Dolittle? I need to talk to the animals and spread the word throughout the animal kingdom that they need not hunt each other to survive.

However, it's OK to kill five million cattle and sheep, mostly disease free, while the save Basil Brush society tell us the wrongs of our ways.

On what first hand evidence do you put blame for foot-and-mouth at the farmer's door? Even if the farmers did start it, Maff or Defra are in charge of controlling it and Billy Smart's clowns could do a better job.

I spent my whole childhood running around the countryside, fishing and out with the ferret and dog "assisting" the farmer to keep levels of vermin in check. These activities were almost a birthright to lads in the old mining villages.

I'm now a barbaric Neanderthal. I pay my £60 for a fishing licence to the Environment Agency. I've sponsored bird boxes, improved river habitat, restored damaged banksides and watched the re-introduction of the lovely otter to the River Wear. My children are taken out and taught about animals, birds, trees and habitat.

The antis need to come clean. Do you really love the British countryside? Or are you simply against landowners or generally anyone with more money than yourself? - Jim Tague, Bishop Auckland.

TAXATION

DIANA Wallis, the Liberal MEP (HAS, Jul 13), should realise that the cost of allowing the EC to levy a direct tax on the citizens of this country for its own upkeep is not financial but political.

The only authority that can legitimately impose taxes on an Englishman is the Crown in Parliament - effectively, his own elected government.

To allow some outside body to do so is to abandon any claim to be an independent sovereign nation. - TJ Towers, Langley Park.

THE EURO

ROBIN Ashby (HAS, Jul 5) credits the Government for its cool and asks us to take a long, hard look at the facts on the euro.

The reason for this strategy is that the favourable exchange rate required for entry is further away than ever. After much searching for facts, I find the pros are very much speculative. The main one is that we will have influence in Europe. Yet, when the power of veto goes, we will have two votes out of 15 - some influence.

By retaining the status quo outside the euro currency, we will remain independent politically, be able to set our own interest rates, to control inflation and the economy, be free to decide on judicial, foreign and defence policies, and stem the constant flow of rules and regulations which are stifling our enterprise. - JW Heslop, Gainford.