Letters

THE disaster now taking place in agriculture was predictable at least 30 years ago.

Then, when we protested about what MAFF was pressuring farmers into doing (some of them very willingly) - the wholesale destruction of wildlife, industrial treatment of livestock - we were accused of not living in the real world, that jobs mattered more than birds, that animals mattered only it terms of hard cash.

It should now be clear who needed, and still need, to get real. To expect to get away indefinitely with such utter contempt for other living things is to be truly divorced from reality.

There is an ecological as well as moral justice, as should now be clear to the officials and experts of MAFF. Though to look there for any sign of remorse, or even responsibility, well yes, I would be dreaming were I to do that. - Tony Kelly, Crook.

THE recent outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease is just the last in a number of crises to hit rural parts of our countryside.

As a result, North Yorkshire and Cumbria County Councils took the unprecedented step of closing all rights of way. This takes immediate effect and all footpaths and bridleways are now closed to the public in the Yorkshire Dales National Park until further notice.

Yet, unlike other farming crises, the British public have a vital part to play in stopping the spread of this disease by respecting these closures and only coming to the national park if their visit is urgent.

If the public are vigilant in the short term, then the chances of shortening this crisis are better and hopefully, it will be sooner rather than later that we will be welcoming the visiting public back to this great national park. - David Butterworth, Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority, Bainbridge, Leyburn.

CLUFF'S attempts at humour relating to the farming community (Echo Feb 24 and 28) were in very bad taste in such a serious and trying times when countless people's livelihoods and lifetime work are at stake.

I enjoy a joke with the best, but these were downright insensitive. - ED Bowen, Darlington.

ANIMAL WELFARE

DESPITE the continuing and obvious ailments in the country's transport, health, education and welfare systems, and notwithstanding the current crisis in the farming industry, this Government has decided to spend much precious parliamentary time in the relentless pursuit to ban fox hunting.

This, we are told, is being undertaken on the grounds of animal welfare. Yet, the same Government has overseen the closure of much of our national abattoir capacity by over regulation in following EU statutes, many of which are blatantly disregarded by our continental partners.

This has resulted in the enforced movement of animals going for slaughter over long distances, causing them much travel and handling distress and, as we are now learning, contributing greatly to the spread of the current outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease from Northumberland to Essex.

Tony Blair obviously understands little about animal welfare. - GC Davies, Darlington.

TRIBUTES

MANY thanks to the paper lad and milkman who delivered as usual on February 27/28 through the snow blizzards. Great service. - FM Atkinson, Shincliffe.

EUROPE

WE are not run by Europe because this is our Europe. Subsidiarity is, of course, crucial.

Europe should never deal with issues better handled at national level. But we are so far from being a superstate that I sometimes wonder about the grasp of reality of some people.

There are 23,000 employers in all the EU institutions, which is fewer than half the number of employed by Birmingham City Council. The amount of EU legislation has been broadly stable for ten years.

We are repealing as much as we put on the statute book. The EU budget is shrinking as a share of GDP and is currently 1.11 per cent, whereas all levels of government in total spend 45 per cent of GDP.

Some superstate. Some myth. - Peter Freitag, Chair, European Movement, Tees Branch.

COUNCIL TAX

I ENDORSE Mr Peacock's recent protest at Darlington's proposed 12.5 per cent hike in council tax (HAS, Feb 28), even though the increase for me in County Durham and Chester-le-Street District (in this election year at least) is less severe.

I find it remarkable how little visible or vocal public concern there seems to be at these heavy increases year on year.

My proposal would be to reduce local authority budgets, excluding teachers' salaries, by two per cent year on year. This would force senior officers to find ways of improving efficiency and reducing costs and waste. It would also help to weed out unnecessary bureaucracy.

However, until voters or government intervene and change the current arrangements, I fear we are faced with the inevitablity of council tax doubling every ten to 15 years. - David Middleton, Chester-le-Street.

SMOKING

THE ever-active ASH (Action on Smoking and Health) has called for films featuring aspirational role models who smoke to be classified 15.

This follows an American study that suggests that children who see their heroes smoking on screen are more likely to smoke themselves.

While this may be true in America, all the evidence in the UK suggests that it is peer pressure that encourages young people to smoke, not celebrities.

What will the anti-smoking industry think of next? Will it demand that publishers extinguish Sherlock Holmes' pipe for fear it will corrupt future generations. Or will they demand that we airbrush Lady Penelope's cigarette out of Thunderbirds...Oh, silly me, they already have! - Jo Gaffikin, FOREST, (Freedom Organisation for the Right to Enjoy Smoking Tobacco), London.