Hear All Sides

GEORGE REYNOLDS

HAVING attended the Darlington Fans' Forum and witnessed George Reynolds' extraordinary performance, there can be no doubt he is a colourful and unique character.

He also represents the best opportunity for Darlington to be playing and the fans to be watching Premiership football.

George has spent millions for Darlington. Now is the time for Darlington to support George and fill Feethams and the new stadium every week.

Darlington will have a team our support deserves.

We have waited 118 years for George Reynolds and we cannot let this opportunity slip through our hands. - Colin Leek, Darlington.

WOODHOUSE CLOSE

I READ the article on Woodhouse Close Estate, Bishop Auckland, (Echo, June 26) with a great deal of interest. Doreen Kett and friends deserve medals as big as the town hall clock.

I've got family and friends on the estate, who don't want any more of the working man's money thrown at it. Yearly hand-outs, running into tens of millions, are not the answer.

I had a tin bath until I was 12, outside toilet until 14, never used a phone until I moved away to find work. I still don't answer my dad back, never sit down in a friend's house until asked or think the world owes me a living.

Any action should be to help the majority, the good people. Reinstate Ray Mallon (a proper copper) here and rid the place of the mindless idiots.

Forgive me if I'm wrong, but all I see are designer trainers and jeans, daily drinking sessions, heavy smoking and people never doing a shift of work. Is that really poverty?

A small proportion of this Government money would have saved 600 jobs at Fujitsu. - Name and address supplied.

JAMES BULGER

PETER Mullen's column (Echo, June 26) was yet another article full of bitterness, preaching a message of a hateful vendetta against the two young men who killed James Bulger when they were young boys themselves, who probably, up to then, never knew moral guidance, let alone Christian values.

For a man of the cloth, a so-called Christian preacher, it shocked me about his lack of compassion and forgiveness.

Doesn't he realise the biggest punishment of all to Jon and Robert is that they will have to live with new identities, never being able to be their true selves, away from their families.

It will be so hard to live with their consciences. - J Williams, Newton Aycliffe.

FOREIGN LANGUAGES

I HAVE recently been saddened, though not all together surprised, to read that a recent EU poll shows Britain once again bottom of the class for foreign languages.

With the holiday season upon us, it is disheartening to read that only 17 per cent of Britons speak French while only three per cent are familiar with Spanish.

Learning just a few words and phrases of the native language really does make a holiday run smoother and does wonders for improving our reputation abroad - it can turn us all into ambassadors for a nation that often receives a bad press abroad.

Having knowledge of another language is also good for business. At a time when so much of Yorkshire and the Humber's exports go to the Continent, a degree of proficiency in German, French, Italian or Spanish can make the difference between clinching yet another deal or losing out to a more sophisticated European rival.

A recent DTI survey found that over 50 per cent of small businesses in the region have experienced language barriers and a third recognise that they have lost deals due to poor language skills.

Indeed, 47 per cent of exporters say that a business inquiry in a foreign language would not make it past their switchboard. According to the DTI, the potential losses for exporters in the UK could be billions of pounds of trade.

As this year has been designated European Year of Languages, I sincerely hope that yet another bumper year of people taking their holidays abroad will encourage more local people to learn other languages. For some suggestions on how to do that, please don't hesitate to contact my office on (01482) 609943. - Diana Wallis MEP, Yorkshire and the Humber.

CHURCH SCHOOLS

RE church schools (HAS, June 26) and the correspondent's views are, it would suggest, vague and irrelevant and is simply preaching a lot of hot air. A report has suggested that some church schools are producing better results than other schools which may be true. Better than some, not all.

What does Christian principles mean, the rod of iron and strict discipline. We have just heard and seen reports of brutality in certain church schools and other more dubious behaviour.

The correspondent tries to infer Christian behaviour is pure, all other behaviour being God-less, is not.

It has been found that schools which can select their pupils are better placed to succeed, so it seems that the assertion of church schools being more successful must be brought into question. It would need a lot more facts and figures before such an assertion can be proved.

One of the biggest problems society faces today is the belief we can have liberty at the expense of responsibility.

Why work for it when we can have it for nothing. Any school that can teach the ethos of responsibility and hard work will succeed and it does not have to be a church school or one of any other denomination.

All is needed is simply the right attitude and the incentive to go with it. And less bureaucratic interference. - John Young, Crook.