Letters

THE Northern Echo is one of the best aviation-orientated newspapers I know, and my cuttings books are full of articles and picture from its pages.

Should your attention not already have been drawn to an item in the story about Sqn Ldr George Bennions, I thought you might like to know that (as far as I can recall) there were no Caterpillar parachutes, (Echo, Mar 15).

The Caterpillar Club was formed, if I remember rightly, by the Irvin Parachute Company, whose little gold badges were presented to those whose life was saved by the use of one of their products. Irvin were the main, if not the only manufacturer at the beginning of war, and the club had an elite membership.

'Chutes were mostly made of silk, hence the caterpillar. However, nylon became available and this was used, especially on supply-drop containers. We used it for lining our slit trenches, and we wore 'neckerchiefs' made of the various coloured nylon, with the point visible down our backs, so that any air support flyers could see where we were.

I'm not aware of the exact limitation of the award, but feel sure that it was limited only to those who used their 'chute in an emergency, not to any of us in the airborne forces where it was literally a piece of disposable equipment. - Des Reed, Malton.

SAVINGS

WITH the recent advertisements for people to save with ISAs, I wonder how many are aware that from April, 2003, Chancellor Gordon Brown will be taxing at ten per cent the income accruing from ISAs which are invested in stocks and shares. So much for tax-free savings. - S Johnson, Darlington.

FOOT-AND-MOUTH

SURELY it is about time that the TV and newspapers, including The Northern Echo, stopped vying with each other to show the most horrific and disturbing pictures of the slaughter of the poor animals.

Your photograph (Echo, Mar 28) reached a new low only to be equalled by Tyne Tees and BBC with their cameras showing dead animals being moved around in a digger.

Most people with a modicum of common sense know exactly what is going on. We don't need graphic photographs.

Where are the cameras and photographers when the same farm animals are being herded on to lorries and taken to the slaughter houses to be killed for human consumption? What they suffer during this time is just as bad as what is going on at present.

From an animal welfare point, I can see only one good thing from this disaster and that is that there could be an end to so-called livestock dealers who day-after-day trundle animals round markets hoping to make a quick profit or helping farmers with quotas.

Surely, it is time for more stringent legislation on the movement of animals and hopefully, in the future, the welfare of farm animals will be given a higher priority. - JC Naylor, Oakenshaw.

IT is time Tony Blair and the so-called chief vet, plus Nick Brown, resigned over the foot-and-mouth fiasco.

Every animal should have been vaccinated within 24 hours rather than waste billions of pounds keeping vets happy, as they are, like MPs, overpaid.

Why should we have to clear up their mess when they should be putting their own house in order? - Name and address supplied.

HAVE we or have we not had our sovereignty signed away? It appears that we have, when our elected ministers have to go cap in hand to European ministers to ask permission to vaccinate our animals against a foot-and-mouth epidemic that appears to be raging out of control.

Surely vaccination is a good idea, especially for those animals like the sheep in the Lake District that will become extinct if culled.

It is a fact of life that, unless we are personally affected by something, we sit back and do nothing. This latest disaster is going to affect nearly everyone in this country, so maybe some good will come out of this latest tragedy and the majority may start to take an interest in what is really happening to this country and do something about it. - Brenda Tingate, Darlington.

VERNAL EQUINOX

WHY do we have to endure an hour's extra cold in the mornings until about June, when we hope to get summer weather?

Here we are passed the vernal equinox and suffering chilling, windy weather due to the changing of the Earth's position around the Sun. - Mrs Miriam Young, Durham.

THATCHERISM

WHAT happened to our country was good old Margaret Thatcher, who decimated shipbuilding, some steelworks, heavy engineering and coal mines, conveniently blaming it on a European rationalisation programme.

The railways and power industries were privatised. Also, from 1980, the fishing industry was sold down the river. That's what happened. And we're still feeling the effect. - Fred Atkinson, Shincliffe.

TAXES

WE were supposed to be overjoyed when we received our tax information for the year starting April 6. I wonder how many people, like me, are shattered to find that they will, in fact, be paying just as much, or more, tax in the forthcoming year than they were in 2000/01. Yes, the personal and married allowances have been increased, in my case by just under £400, but the increase in state pension means the amount to be deducted from allowances has increased by about the same amount!

The net result of all this is that my tax-free amount for the new year has marginally decreased. I'm going to be slightly less well off.

Add in the swingeing increase in council tax with which Darlington Borough Council is clobbering us and we are going to be a fair bit worse off in the coming tax year.

We shall certainly not be hurrying to vote for the return of this Government when the time comes. - RK Bradley, Darlington.