Hear All Sides

REGIONAL FUNDING

I HAVE supported The Northern Echo's campaign to have the Barnett Formula updated. I wrote to Alan Beith on December 9, 1997 informing him of my concerns about job losses in this region and pointed out that the Barnett Formula disadvantages the North in favour of Scotland and Wales as far as industrial grants are concerned.

Mr Beith replied that there was a greater disparity of living standards among the regions of England than there is among the component parts of the UK.

If the same principles behind the Barnett Formula were applied within England, so that the distribution is based on the assessment of present needs, it would bring extra resources into the North-East.

Charles Kennedy backed my motion to have the Barnett Formula updated at the Northern Regional Liberal Democrat Conference at Gateshead last year. Earlier this month I pointed out to his office that Spennymoor had suffered further job losses and that our manufacturing base was being eroded, destroying employment opportunities for the younger generation of workers in this region.

The Barnett Formula block grants that were introduced in 1978 covering the NHS, Education, Social Services, industrial grants and tourism.

The Northern Echo says that Scotland receives over £1bn more than the North-East. A local academic says that the Barnett Formula could cost the North-East almost £2bn a year.

Until these reforms become an Act of Parliament, I will continue my campaign with a petition to have the Barnett Formula updated and for more jobs and industrial investment for this area. - Councillor Ben Ord, Spennymoor Liberal Democrats.

NATIONAL IDENTITY

MOST of the Labour Cabinet are ex-Marxists and Robin Cook's 'British are not a race' speech (Echo, Apr 20) makes one think they still are Marxists, since communist policy is to destroy a nation's identity bit by bit, as well as seeking to discredit any opposition, thus in effect establishing a dictatorship.

In Oldham, 67 per cent of attacks are on whites. It is one city among many where white people are living in fear of their own land. Does this Government care?

No, it merely advocates further immigration, thus ensuring that this country will be more divided than the Balkans. - Jennifer Bell, Stanhope.

RACIST PARTY

THE Tory Party should now come out into the open and tell everybody that it is a racist party. Now Michael Portillo, along with other Tory MPs, refuses to sign a pledge not to play the race card in the run up to the General Election. Former Minister John Gummer accuses the Commission for Racial Equality of blackmail, saying those who refused to sign were under the suspicion of being racist. - J L Thompson, Crook.

DITHERING?

ONE of our English dictionaries does not list the word "dithering", so how has it become so popular in today's media when describing the Government's actions during the foot-and-mouth outbreak? I think it is a most unfair, derogatory term for what a responsible government department like Maff has been doing. Led by a team of experts, it has deliberated, and carefully weighed the pros and cons of all decisions. William Hague clamoured loudly for vaccination of livestock. What does he say now, when the NFU opposes it? Is he capable of admitting that he made a mistake? Was he perhaps not dithering enough?

It has been so easy for farmers to criticise the Government every time some mistake was made in this huge operation to conquer the foot-and-mouth disease. Blaming those who are helping and forgetting how this plague started - on a farm in Heddon-on-the-Wall, not in Whitehall. - EM Whittaker, Richmond.

THANK YOU

MAY I express my thanks to the young boy who handed in my wallet which I had dropped in Woolworth's store in High Street, Stockton.

I only realised my wallet was missing in Debenham's store some 20-30 minutes after leaving Woolworth's and retraced my steps, fearing that I would not see my wallet again. Imagine my surprise and delight to find that it had been handed in. I only wish I could have thanked the boy in person, but he has restored my faith in the often maligned youth of today. - P Swaddle, Low Fell, Gateshead.

COINCIDENCE OR PRAYER?

IN his letter (HAS, Apr 13) W Collinson ridicules EA Moralee who indicated that prayer could have played a vital part in the successful Dunkirk evacuation.

When the better-equipped German army swept through the Low Countries and France at a rate that surprised even Hitler and his generals, one report stated that, had they continued non-stop onto the beaches, things could have been vastly different. Instead, reaching the outskirts of the town, Hitler halted his armour for two whole days. When questioned by his infuriated generals, he feebly replied that he had no intention of destroying the British.

Was such a valuable respite the result of constant prayer or in the eyes of the non-believer, a mere coincidence? - Douglas Punchard, Kirkbymoorside.

Weardale CENSUS

YOUR article on our excellent little Weardale Museum (Echo, April 29) was most welcome, but I am sorry if I inadvertently gave your reporter the impression that the censuses in the 19th Century were conducted at night! In reality, from 1841 onwards the enumerators gave out forms to every household in advance, just as is happening at present for the 2001 census, and collected them in after the census night. What was put on the form was at the discretion of the head of the household.

The picture of the local schoolmaster wandering round the remoter parts of Weardale in the dark and dragging the inhabitants from their beds to count them is intriguing but not true. - J Backhouse, Ireshopeburn.