Letters

IT is a real disgrace that a large and wealthy town like Darlington now has no bus station.

There was nothing wrong with the one that has been deliberately run down. It had everything - coffee bar, good toilets, inquiries and lost property offices, plenty of seats and shelter from the elements.

It is typical of our present times and second rate services to bus passengers. Profit before welfare and facilities. Long distance coach services, such as the National Express, used to disembark passengers in a dry, warm station. They now disembark on to the often cold, open Market Place.

If the powers that be want to reduce congestion on the roads they should provide the proper facilities for their bus passengers like they can with so many car parks. - J Lawler, Newton Aycliffe.

FACTORY FARMING

THE growing demand for a cull of wildlife (Echo, Mar 13) is as irrelevant as it is morally heinous.

It is typical of abusers, whether of people or animals that under pressure, they will blame anybody, especially their victims, but themselves.

Anything but the truth; which is that factory farming caused this disaster as it will cause others, probably worse.

The only realistic solution is therefore its total abandonment in favour of the organic, ethical-type farming practised by a growing number of caring, courageous farmers with dramatic success in every aspect.

Unfortunately, factory farming involves some of the most powerful vested interests in the country whom no government would offend without massive public backing.

Most of us have always chosen to turn a blind eye to the facts of how our food is produced and if this complacency is at all disturbed by the current horrible scenes on TV (nothing compared to the obscenities of intensive pig production or the wholesale destruction, including poisoning, of bird life) then some good might emerge from this tragedy. - Tony Kelly, Crook.

CATERPILLAR CLUB

SURELY your reporter of "Hero relives daredevil memories" (Echo, Mar 16) has seen a caterpillar hanging in mid-air from a silken threat. That is how the Caterpillar Club got its name.

The Irvin Parachute Company - parachutes then being made of silk - initiated the club, presenting caterpillar tie pins to pilots whose lives had been saved using their parachutes. - JH Fenton, West Rainton, Houghton-le-Spring.

CAT OWNERS

I FEEL I must reply to Dennis Mawson's letter (HAS, Mar 19) on cats and their owners.

Firstly, there is nothing strange about my wife or myself and we only keep one cat. I will admit that some people do go over the top in the number of cats they keep.

You cannot blame a cat for being the way it is, but you can control them to a certain degree.

Personally, I would rather have cats than rats roaming in my garden. - T Amos, Catterick Garrison.

THE WELSH

IN his brief history lesson on the Welsh, GH Grieveson (HAS, Mar 14) seems to have forgotten about Edward I and his complete subjugation of Wales and the Welsh. - HR Watson, Darlington.

UNEMPLOYMENT

WITH reference to all the hype surrounding the downturn in the dole figures, what would be the figures if agency workers who are temporarily employed were taken into account?

I am on a temporary contract with an agency with no long-term prospects, no statutory Bank Holiday pay, no pension benefits, sick pay etc.

The Government figures are far from correct, taking into consideration how many temporary agency staff at present are used as cheap labour.

Have these workers been accounted for in the Government figures? I think not. - Frank Stephenson, Spennymoor.

OPERATION LANCET

NOW that Operation Lancet is finished, it will be interesting to see what happens next.

We are told it has been finished now for more than a month and yet Mr Mallon and his seven colleagues, although cleared of any wrongdoing, are still suspended.

Mr Mallon is now allowed to talk and Chief Constable Barry Shaw will not talk.

This farce could go on for another three years and crime is still rising. - W Lamb, Ferryhill.

GREAT BRITAIN

I WOULD like to write in support of William Hague, who is being vilified for telling the truth with regard to Britain becoming a foreign country.

What else are we expected to think, since we were informed immigrants would be the majority in 50 years time?

This discrediting of Hague, who is only stating what many people rightly fear, is a communist game, played since the days of Lenin to intimidate those who do not toe the party line, and serves to underline how far down the road to communism this country has gone. - Anthony Pearson, Hartlepool.

DOUBLE JEOPARDY

DOUBLE jeopardy, a principle that has safeguarded human rights since the 12th Century, has stood the test of time and, despite the lamentable state of affairs arising from the Stephen Lawrence debacle, should not be scrapped.

We all know the law can be an ass but, in that incidence, the law wasn't the problem. It was, if reports are to be believed, incompetence on the part of the police. - AP Kirk, Middlesbrough.

FOOT-AND-MOUTH

WITHOUT any further delay, Chancellor Gordon Brown must offer an immediate and generous compensatory package to all who may be financially affected by the disastrous outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease.

He should offer to match, pound for pound, the compensation paid to the farming community by the Conservative government during the equally disastrous outbreak of BSE which occurred while they were in power. - Alan Benn, Bedale.