Letters

I READ the article (Echo, Dec 18) about TV bosses wanting to remove bad language from the film Billy Elliot. I haven't seen this film for that reason.

My father was a miner in East Durham. I never heard him or any of his workmates use bad language in front of children or women. I deplore bad language used in this manner. If a TV programme I am watching contains this language I switch off, as if someone I had invited into my home started swearing in front of women and children.

I watched a local news item recently where schoolchildren had been taken to a theatre to watch a play. One of the children stated: "It was just like real life with swearing in it." Is this art imitating real life or visa versa? If this film relies on a few swear words to make it a success is it such a good film?

Look at the blockbuster movies of recent years, Star Trek, ET, Indiana Jones etc. Amazing how they made all those millions without having to rely on gutter language.

Young people on the streets now seem to swear in public often and think nothing of it. Can we blame them when we show it almost every night on TV that they watch?

How long before the same excuse can be used for rape offences? Not possible? Someone could have said the same 30 years ago about bad language. - Name and address supplied, County Durham.

EMBRYO CLONING

THE Government's strenuous public relations campaign to support human embryo cloning is similar to that which paved the way to legalising human embryo research in the 1990s.

At the time it was insisted that this held the key to the cure of many genetic and degenerative conditions. Ten years later, we are still waiting for the results.

The same empty promises now reappear for human embryonic cloning, but the Donaldson Report, (Echo, Dec 20) produced no scientific evidence to back these claims. On the contrary, great strides towards such cures are currently emerging with the use of adult stem cells and other ethical alternatives, making this report out of date.

You also highlight the Parkinson Disease Society's alleged support for embryonic cloning. However, on Nov 15, its members wrote to all MPs stating their opposition to this, claiming that full-time paid officials of the society had not consulted them. They suspected that the promise of cures was being used to help boost fund-raising by some charities supporting the Donaldson Report. It will also eventually be seen that the Government's sole interest in human cloning is to exploit it for commercial and economic gains only. - P Cartwright, Ferryhill.

STEALTH LEGISLATION

THOSE who fear what might or might not happen to Britain and its freedoms as a result of European agreements overlook what is happening now as a result of British "stealth legislation".

There has already been further erosion of trial by jury. Now presumption of innocence and the need to prove guilt beyond reasonable doubt are under attack, along with the right to privacy.

The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act could mean you get two years in jail for forgetting the computer equivalent of a PIN number - and five years if you tell your employer that the police demand it from you.

An accusation against anyone under the Crime Finance Bill could lead to your assets being frozen. You will have to prove your money was legally earned - overturning a legal principle of centuries' standing.

Of course, politicians say the innocent have nothing to fear. American experience with similar legislation suggests otherwise, especially when police forces are allowed to keep the proceeds of seizures.

It may be that in future your only redress will come from the European Courts and the much maligned Charter of Fundamental Rights as English common law is destroyed piece by piece - not by a European superstate but by a British parliament which is failing in its duty to keep the executive in check. - R Ashby, Newcastle.

SKILLS COUNCIL

MONEY has been taken from the regions' education budgets to establish the new Learning and Skills Council. It appears that over 50 per cent of the funding removed from the North-East is to be allocated in the South.

This has probably been done to secure the votes of Middle England. Once again New Labour shows its disdain for its North-East heartlands which have kept faith with it for generations. - RM Kelly, Chester le Street.

LUNG CANCER

I AM writing to you as one of tens of thousands of people whose lives have been touched by the UK's most common cancer.

My husband, the entertainer Roy Castle OBE, died of lung cancer in 1994 and I vowed then to do all I could to help beat the disease.

Because of this, I am asking your readers to support The Cancer Research Campaign's Lung Cancer Awareness Month this month.

The charity has launched the January campaign because the disease, which it has dubbed the "invisible cancer", is one of the least talked about and least funded common cancers in the UK.

This is despite the fact that 40,000 people are diagnosed with lung cancer every year in the UK and more people die of it than any other cancer.

If you would like to help the campaign put this issue on the national agenda please send a donation to The Cancer Research Campaign or write with a letter of support to Lung Cancer Awareness Month, The Cancer Research Campaign, 10 Cambridge Terrace, London NW1 4JL.

And, if you have recovered from lung cancer and would like to help spread awareness of the disease, please write to me at the address above with your name, contact details and some information about yourself. - F Castle, Patron of the Cancer Research Campaign's Lung Cancer Awareness Month.