Hear All Sides

METRIC MARTYR

THE letters about Steve Thoburn (HAS, April 16) have got their facts wrong.

He was not convicted for "selling a pound of bananas" or even for "offering his customers the choice of pounds or kilos", but for not offering that choice.

Furthermore, metrication in the UK started well before we joined the Common Market. It is only a legal technicality that the particular statute used in the case is based on a "Brussels directive" - we would have had a law with the same effect if the UK had not been a member of the EU. Like others of my age, I was taught to chant "16 ounces make a pound, 14 pounds make a stone, eight stones make a hundredweight, 20 hundredweight make a ton" and similarly for inches, feet, chains, furlongs and so on. I'm very glad modern children don't have to go through all that!

Agreed, the authorities would better have turned a blind eye or let Mr Thoburn off with a caution; he wasn't really doing much harm.

It was the media frenzy that forced them to take him to court, not the severity of his offence or any pressure from Brussels. - John Hawgood, Durham.

SEACOALERS

BEING originally from Darlington and having visited Hartlepool and Seaton Carew often as a child, I noted with interest the recent articles in the national Press concerning the plight of the seacoalers there.

Whilst black sandy beaches may be a positive boon on sun-drenched isles such as Santorini in Greece, on the windswept post-industrial North sea coast a similar appeal is hard to imagine.

Hounding a bunch of hard-working blokes for keeping the beaches clean (free) whilst endeavouring to avoid the dole queue and earn a few quid, seems churlish in the extreme.

In Worthing, close to where I live, the council similarly took umbrage at farmers removing tons of seaweed from the beaches - which they saw as a saleable commodity - so the farmers returned to more conventional fertilisers and the beaches became covered in a thick layer of stinking, rotting vegetation and the tourists went elsewhere.

Yet another instance of flippant bureaucracy favouring style over substance. Tractors and Land Rovers don't look nice on beaches - so what! - G Hall, Brighton.

TEACHERS

THE two main political parties acknowledge that there is a shortage of teachers and blame each other for it

I am a newly-qualified teacher, I graduated July 2,000 ready to enter the workforce. However, I am still without a full-time job. I have on two separate occasions been told, when looking around schools where there was a vacancy, they were looking for younger applicants.

I am 41 and see myself as having the ability to be a good teacher, yet I am still having to do supply teaching because I am considered as "too old".

I do need to complete my introduction period and to do this I need to work longer term. Can anyone explain this paradox to me?

There is a teacher shortage, yet apparently only young teachers will suffice.

In this case, why train more mature people if they cannot contribute to the education system? Do any of the politicians realise that there are older entrants to the teaching profession and we are being passed over? - C Smart, Stockton.

PETER MULLEN

JOHN Young claims (HAS, Apr 18) that Peter Mullen is an example of what an English columnist should be and that, if there were more like him, the English would have more pride in their country.

In saying this, Mr Young attempts to put England above any other country. Such nationalistic rubbish disgusts me. It is these spoutings which destroy our chances of closer links with our foreign neighbours and encourage men like William Hague to take advantage of prejudices in situations such as that involving the Tory party's proposed detention of all asylum seekers. - Mark Tallentire, Bishop Auckland.

THERE seems to be a great deal of opposition to everything Peter Mullen says, however reasonable or truthful his writings may be.

The left-wing has stated it intends to smash right-wing opinion and the amount of opposition to Mr Mullen leads me to suspect this may be a concerted attempt to silence him; merely because his views do not coincide with left-wing propaganda. - Stan Fellows, Stockton.

STAR WARS

A FEATHERSTONE letter (HAS, Apr 17) and his argument against Star Wars appears to be based on the error that "Fylingdales will be used to destroy missiles over the US".

This is not on the agenda and we must be wary of leaving this country defenceless because of this mistake.

Earlier this month, Vladimir Putin suggested his plan for a Star Wars system covering Europe and Russia. Why has this gone unchallenged by all those who have insisted Star Wars systems "break nuclear agreement"? Not a word from any of them, how strange.

Many countries have been testing nuclear devices regardless of agreements. China and Iraq, for example, and President Yeltsin himself admitted that nuclear agreements were not adhered to in Russia. None of this comes into the equation of the anti-Fylingdales brigade, it is only when America wishes to defend the West that their fury is unleashed.

Why don't they admit they just want rid of the West and be done with it? - Jonathan Simms, Darlington.

GOOD SAMARITANS

MAY I say thank you to the two young ladies who looked after me when I tripped and fell in Durham.

I only know that one girl worked in the Abbey National office. They were both very kind and thoughtful. It is good to know there are still such caring people. - C Dowson, New Brancepeth, Durham.