Letters

AS a trade union group, we wholeheartedly applaud your efforts and the campaign to help save the jobs of the Corus steelworkers.

At the same time, you must be aware that, in Darlington, you could have a similar or worse situation.

The threat to the BAT/Rothmans factory, brought about by EU legislation on tobacco control, is all too real and imminent. If EU proposals to ban the export of cigarettes above 10mg tar go through as they stand, Darlington could be looking at the loss of 525 jobs among those directly employed; and up to 2,500 further job losses among suppliers and contractors in the area.

We should be clear: the ban will do nothing for the internal market or to improve health. The same cigarettes will be manufactured - but not in the EU. Thousands of increasingly-rare British manufacturing jobs face being sacrificed for political correctness and Government disinterest - nothing more.

Unlike Corus, our situation is not caused by the economic climate, the strong pound or because our company has found somewhere cheaper.

We do not need government grants, or employment task forces - we need the UK Government to veto worrying plans by the EU to decide the specifications of British exports.

We need your support and that of our North-East MPs. - Ian Coverdale Branch Secretary MSF, Derek Coates Convenor AEEU, Ron Elstob Shop Steward AEEU.

NATIONS IN BLOOM

Saltburn was third in the small town section of Nations In Bloom in Washington DC, US (Echo, Dec 23). I would like to thank the following sponsors for their support: Bells Stores £100, Consteel £100, Cleveland Potash £100, Residents Association £100, also Northern Electric, Saltburn Rotary Club, Mr Leslie Horgan, Saltburn Masonic Trust, Watson Ford Motors, Somerfield and The Evening Gazette and individuals.

The parish council donated £65 towards the entry fee of £125.

Redcar and Cleveland Council donated time and the community paid the officers' accommodation and travel expenses.

The video was prepared by Teesside Tertiary College, slides were donated by Tony Lynn.

We will soon show the video and Powerpoint Presentation to townspeople. - J Taylor, Saltburn.

PANTOMIME

NOW the sun has set over Panto Land, can I take this opportunity to thank The Northern Echo and the people of the North-East for their fantastic support.

Pantomime is all about audience participation and we are very fortunate to have the best audiences here in the North-East. We have, over the last six years, tried to build up a reputation which is worthy of your support. Winning the Echo's Twanky award (Jan, 13) for top North-East pantomime was a great tribute to our audience, staff and to the memories of three wonderful people involved with the Customs House, who died recently - Mary, Madge and Iris. Our audiences proved they have big hearts by donating more than £4,000 to Cancer Research. A further 16 charities were given pantomime tickets to boost their fund-raising appeals.

Already tickets are selling for this year's pantomime Cinderella, so I hope to see you all at the ball. Can we beat this year's effort? Oh yes we can! - R Spencer, Director, The Customs House, South Shields.

PUNISHMENT

AS a new reader, I missed the comment regarding swift punishment for proven misdemeanours, but I hear from all sides that there is no effective deterrent. Not so.

As a young boy, I read a report about mischievous juveniles harassing fire fighters who were distracted to the point of losing control of a high pressure hose which shot a jet of cold water up into the air to descend on the miscreants, thereby ending all harassment. Murphy's Law can provide an effective answer. - T Cockeram, Leeds.

METAL DETECTING

FURTHER to my letter about metal detecting, I notice you once again published a very unfair statement from the archaeologists regarding the hobby (Echo, Jan 25).

You published details of six finds made by metal detectorists, and then quoted county archaeologist Neil Campion as saying: "The increased number of finds in recent times is directly due to the Treasure Act, which lays a duty on finders to report things as possible treasure."

This is not true and the Treasure Act is another piece of Labour legislation that has not worked. This can be shown by the simple fact that all six finds were made before the Treasure Act came into being, and were all declared because of the honesty of the metal detectorists involved. It may be of interest to people to know that out of the six finds mentioned, three were not declarable and could have been sold straight away.

The useless legislation called the Treasure Act has clogged the system up and coroners cannot handle the workload it has created. - N Smith, Newton Aycliffe.

VOTING

WITH a General Election, looming, we will all soon get the chance to vote, but many people just won't bother. Either through idleness, selfishness, a feeling that all parties are the same or because they think their vote won't count, between 25 and 50 per cent may not vote at all.

But we all should vote because it is both a privilege and a duty. It is a privilege because probably more than 70 per cent of the world's population do not live under any meaningful form of democracy. It is a duty because our parents, grandparents and their forebears fought and died to preserve our freedoms which we take for granted.

There are other reasons too. If we do not vote, we get someone else's choice. People's votes do count. If 30 per cent who did not vote had all voted for the same candidate, that candidate would probably get in.

If we do not vote, we risk letting the tyrant steal past the sleeping guards and into the castle. - Edward Forth, Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Spokesman, Richmond Constituency.