FOOT-AND-MOUTH

IS it really necessary or logical to slaughter and burn thousands of healthy animals, or even infected ones, which pose no risk to humans? Isn't it time for a re-think?

Vaccines are available to stop the spread of foot-and-mouth disease but it does mean some countries not taking our meat exports.

This would be readily compensated for if we lifted the burden of EU regulations and quotas, and also did not allow imports, unfairly subsidised, to be dumped here. I believe strongly in a free market but only animals reared and processed to our standards should be allowed in.

We should also reverse the EU directives so eagerly implemented by over-zealous officials which have resulted in the closure of local abattoirs, forcing animals to be transported much further than necessary for no conceivable benefit.

With ever-increasing globalisation, it is going to be virtually impossible to eradicate the risk of foot-and-mouth without the vaccination. The mental stress for farmers that it can start so easily again will be overwhelming, even if it is stopped by incineration. - S Feaster, United Kingdom Independence Party, Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Ryedale.

I WISH to take issue with C Greenwell (HAS, Mar 2). We know that farmers have cried wolf too often in the past and have always moaned about prices.

But it has to be a very hard person indeed who doesn't feel sympathy for them at the moment. If you can watch these funeral pyres of dead animals and not be moved - remember most of the ewes would be in-lamb - then you are not human.

I do think it is about time all meat in butchers' shops is labelled with its country of origin, then we would know which is foreign and could really begin to support our farmers. - M Carter, Redcar.

LANCET

ASHOK Kumar, MP, is quite right to call for the resignation of the chairman of Cleveland Police Authority in the wake of the Lancet affair.

The huge waste of public money and disgraceful misuse of police resources for the last three years with no visible outcome, must now lead to the resignation of Ken Walker, before any more damage is done to the Labour Party's reputation in Cleveland. - David Carter, Middlesbrough.

COUNCIL COFFERS

I SEE that Sedgefield Council is putting up rents by £1.75 per week and community tax on a Band A house by £1.50 per week.

The old age pension increase is down straight away by £3.25, making it £1.75. Where is all this money going? Our town centre is a mess. As a pioneer, one of the first on the town, I am now ashamed to take any guests there. - E Creaney, Newton Aycliffe.

PENSIONS

IF Stephen Lambert (HAS, Mar 3) and the likes of Jeff Rooker believe in "working towards giving pensioners a fairer share of the nation's wealth", I suggest to them that the link should be restored between the state pension and earnings.

We had the obscene position last year of having Cabinet Ministers who were earning in excess of £94,000 lecturing senior citizens on why a 75p rise was adequate. Even after the winter fuel allowance, the £5 per week, or £8 for married couples, and other little carrots this year, this still does not measure up to a decent increase for pensioners. So come on Labour, restore the link. - AL Carter, Marske.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE

I AM completely opposed to the changes to the criminal justice system which will make a defendant's previous record known to the jury during the trial. A person should be tried on the evidence arising from that particular case, not on what he has done before, for which he has already been punished.

The Government is undermining the idea that a person is innocent until proven guilty. It has already made it possible for a person to be arrested and held indefinitely without charge. It will also abolish the double indemnity rule which means that the state can prosecute a person as many times as it likes with little or no evidence, just on the off-chance that it can get a conviction.

The Government is also going to take away the right to trial by jury from a whole raft of "either-way" offences and put them in the hands of unrepresentative magistrates.

We have already lost the right not to incriminate either to the police or in court. And, at the end of the day, the only things to suffer are the rights of the individual. - M Jones (Liberal Democrat), Spennymoor.

LABOUR RECORD

AT the New Labour rallies held prior to the last election, some people will remember the song "Things can only get better" blaring from the sound system.

It is worth taking a look at just for whom in this land of ours, things have got better, under New Labour.

Asylum seekers. If you are one of the hundreds of thousands who have arrived here during the past three years, given housing, medicine, clothing and food by this Government, things most definitely have got better for you. The rest of us work to pay the £860m annual bill.

Homosexuals. After three failed attempts, and against the wishes of the majority of people in this country, New Labour used a little-used Parliamentary loophole to make it legal for predatory homosexuals to have sex with boys as young as 16. So, for homosexuals everywhere, things have got better.

Paedophiles. Jack Straw, in refusing to bring a British "Megan's Law" to the statute book, whereby people would be informed when a paedophile was amongst them, shields and protects these perverts. He ignores the worries of mothers, concerned about their children's safety. So for the paedophile, things got better.

Criminals. Hundreds of convicted criminals (including terrorists) given early release by this Government. Things got a whole lot better!

For the majority of people in this country - the motorist, the farmer, the pensioner, etc - things most certainly did not get better. - AE Pearce, Peterlee.