Letters

SURELY I cannot be the only person to be concerned at the report (Echo, Apr 7) that animals will be burned in two huge pits near Tow Law and that this will continue "as long as the crisis continues".

While those of us who live in the Crook-Tow Law-Wolsingham area are by now accustomed to the sweet, sickly smell of burning carcasses, it remains a far from pleasant experience.

However, what really concerns me is the report in a Sunday paper that these animal pyres are pumping toxins into the air and that the National Environmental Technology Centre said that there was evidence of dangerous levels of dioxins entering the atmosphere, particularly in the three kilometres radius around the fires. Dioxins are among the most deadly pollutants and minute amounts in the air can cause all sorts of health problems, including cancers.

I think we should be told what exactly the health risks are before decisions like these are taken. - TJ Cannam, Crook.

THE Government sensibly placed an emergency blanket closure of all footpaths and open land at the start of the foot-and-mouth outbreak, and it now says that local authorities can reopen footpaths in areas that are not affected.

However, if you contact any local authority footpaths officer, for instance Cumbria County Council, then you are informed that it is not even considering reopening any footpaths in unaffected areas, except possibly to Wordsworth's house.

The Government is now considering allowing the movement of sheep from the enclosed lowland fields back up on to the fells because it is costing too much to feed them where they are now.

This is nothing short of criminal, as it will allow possibly infected sheep to transfer the disease to the open fells where there are no walls to restrict their movement and contacts.

To help the tourist industry in places like the Lake District, the Government should reopen the fells and high tops to walkers while keeping the footpaths through enclosed fields closed. - RW Alexander, Darlington.

IT'S not just the distance that animals travel that's been a factor in the spread of foot-and-mouth disease - the transportation of feedstuffs also gives cause for concern.

We now have a confirmed outbreak at Ruswarp, near Whitby, 35 miles from the nearest outbreak at Danby Wiske, which itself was 14 miles from the next nearest. This sort of jump is clearly well beyond any firebreak zones, in which healthy cattle are destroyed.

How is such a jump made? Could it be that feed is being transported from contaminated areas? - Graeme Aldous, Saltburn.

GENERAL ELECTION

THE present delay of the general and local elections convinces me that the General Election should be at a fixed time like the local elections usually are.

We could fix them at the first Thursday after the first Wednesday in June. This would prevent the Prime Minister playing cat and mouse with the voters. Elections would be every four years.

The present Labour Party has wasted its majority. Clement Attlee in 1945 changed Britain in a way so fundamental that it took 30 years for Margaret Thatcher to question the status quo.

Tony Blair has adopted Conservative Party policies and has not achieved much because he wanted a second term at any cost. It is difficult to see how Tony Blair managed to hoodwink his party. Perhaps they were so glad of power that they did not care what they did with it.

The Countess of Wessex is probably speaking for the majority of people when she says Tony Blair is too presidential. - Michael Lathan, Sunderland.

EUROPE

I SHARE your shock at reading the latest MORI poll that 52 per cent of the British people want to leave the EU, (Echo, Apr 6).

Even though I do not often agree with Paul Sykes, I have to say that I share his view that not enough is known about the EU.

Given that, as a nation, we are naturally sceptical of the unknown, these figures are less shocking. The recent BBC documentary, Referendum Street, showed clearly that when a predominantly eurosceptic group of people are given the facts on European issues, in this case the euro, they soon realise that our interests are best served by staying in.

The people I meet throughout the North-East do not strike me as being eurosceptic, xenophobic or prejudiced. For the most part, they are keen to find out more and feel that they are not getting a full picture from media and politicians alike.

Often the public's view of the realities of European integration are blocked out by the emotive rhetoric of anti-Europeans.

I trust that The Northern Echo will do its best to promote a well-informed and well-balanced debate, one in which I will gladly participate. - M O'Toole, Labour MEP for the North-East Region.

STEPHEN Feaster (HAS, Apr 4) describes the Conservative Party's policy of "being in Europe but not run by Europe" as unworkable.

This is an interesting observation from a man who seeks to be a UKIP parliamentary representative. His UKIP colleagues in the European Parliament have done little, if anything at all, to further the interests of the UK or defend our sovereignty.

This is demonstrated by their pitiful attendance record at the committee and plenary sessions in Brussels and Strasbourg.

Despite having a number of reservations about the way decisions at a European level overshadow our own Westminster Parliament, I firmly believe that my job as Conservative MEP for the North-East is to promote and defend North-East and British interests in the European Parliament.

Until we return a Conservative Government that will halt the relentless slide towards political union and repatriate European powers back to Westminster, then we must be in there arguing our case.

It is a goal that is achieved by active participation, not idle speculation and shouting from the sidelines. - Martin Callanan MEP, Conservative, North-East.