Hear All Sides

DIANA

PRINCESS Diana, like everyone else, was not perfect. But is there any reason why she should be repeatedly dragged through the dirt in damaging documentaries?

As she was the mother of this country's future king, surely she should be treated with more respect after her tragic death, and her two sons spared the embarrassment of seeing their mother's life laid bare to everyone.

So, is it now not time to let the tormented soul of Diana be finally laid to rest? - TE Crook, Bishop Auckland.

MANUFACTURING

THIS Government is sleepwalking England to disaster because our manufacturing base is slipping away.

I work in marketing and I am forever talking to companies who cannot compete with cheap labour abroad, and this pathetic lot in government are doing nothing to solve the problem.

Import controls must be brought in to combat this menace from the Far East and save our manufacturing base, before it is too late.

The problem with these politicians is that they have never done a day's work in their lives and the sooner Labour is gone the better. - Rob Richardson, Bishop Auckland.

MANKIND

AS a species, we have always looked down on others and paid ourselves compliments like "man is the measure of all things".

Well, Montaigne once said that animals are, by and large, more intelligent than human beings.

So, you might ask, what animal has ever come up with computers, space travel etc?

I would reply, what animal has ever come up with toxic nuclear fission, ethnic cleansing etc?

Our collective ego mania is now worse than ever. We despise not only other creatures, but also earlier stages in our own history.

In short, we're psycho and, if not checked, will eventually destroy ourselves and our wholly innocent fellow tenants of this planet also .- Tony Kelly, Crook.

EUROPE

ALTHOUGH I had great fear that pro-Europeans would manage to manipulate the referendum question, I now come to realise that the referendum is being used, not to find the wishes of the people, but for the Government's expediency.

I quote Minister for Europe: "We are not going to risk jobs by a headlong rush" (a direct contradiction of what we are told by other pro-Europeans) "or by ruling out the euro for ever".

Another gem refers to "making a judgment" about whether or not the country is ready. Does the current cooling-off period mean that the millions already being undemocratically spent on preparation and propaganda will continue to be spent until the most expedient time can be found?

I am terribly concerned that the future of Britain has been entrusted to new patriots of such mendacity. - JW Heslop, Gainford.

DEATH PENALTY

THE Oklahoma bomber, Timothy McVeigh, who killed many innocent people including children, is now dead and in the US there is much support for the death penalty.

But a wider view should be taken. It is sometimes the case that, when someone is executed, they can become a martyr, so the life imprisonment of murderers might be a better punishment.

Myra Hindley, who enjoyed torturing children before killing them, might by now be suffering herself, perversely because our prison system is so benign that she is able to get enough cigarettes to inflict herself with cancer of the lungs.

She will die a painful death, far worse than McVeigh, and her partner in crime, Ian Brady, who is trying to kill himself by hunger, refusing food, is now being force fed.

One wonders if, at last, these murderers realise how repulsive their crimes committed against innocent children were and that their suffering will last as long as the grief of the children's families. - E Reynolds, Wheatley Hill.

TONY BLAIR

AS a lifelong Labour voter, I am very pleased Tony Blair did not get my vote at the General Election.

He is now really showing his true colours, by giving himself a big pay rise.

Mr Blair, you and the euro are not worth a bent penny. I just hope I'm around to see you get the boot. It's a pity you did not give yourself the pay rise in the week before the election. - Ralph Hedley, Bishop Auckland.

ENGLISH CRICKET

AFTER reading the report by Myles Hodgson (Echo, June 15) on the England v Australia NatWest day/night match at Old Trafford, I thought the headline was rather harsh when the defeat was probably caused through a misunderstanding.

The story is that, prior to the pre-match team talk, Alec Stewart and Duncan Fletcher were looking out of the changing room window. Alec asked Duncan about the weather prospects and Duncan replied: "It would be okay for ducks." On turning round they saw the rest of the team had quietly entered the room.

After the game was over the point was made that the players had caught Duncan's answer but missed Alec's question. - Thomas Conlon, Kirk Merrington, Spennymoor.

BURIAL SITES

SO our MP, Hilary Armstrong, thinks a public inquiry into the siting and running of the animal burial ground in Tow Law would be of no benefit (Echo, June 16).

Would she have said that if she lived here or saw grown men unable to do their work through the horrible smell which reduces them to feeling ill, which happened on Friday at my place of work, Bonds Foundry? Or the sight of men having to wear masks and women with handkerchiefs over their faces, doing their shopping in Tow Law?

If it had been anywhere else in the Wear Valley, especially Crook or Bishop Auckland, I am quite sure she would have been more interested in our plight.

We up here at Tow Law are facing an uncertain future due to this site, and neither politicians or anyone else give two hoots. - GH Hail, Tow Law.