Letters

I WOULD like to add my voice to the letters expressing concern about the state of the railway system. I also wonder, as did CJ Blair (HAS, Nov 21), where the 20,000 people who were recently recruited by Railtrack to check and repair the tracks came from? Did they re-employ some of the experienced ex-Railway Permanent Way staff whom they were so keen to make redundant after privatisation in order that they could save money by contracting the work out? In the light of more and more derailments since, it seems not.

This scenario was repeated throughout the railway industry after privatisation. The new railway companies were keen to freeze out existing staff with years and years of experience (these staff were known by the new management as dinosaurs!) so that they could employ new recruits who did not have the expensive conditions of service retained by the existing staff after the takeover, and therefore could be employed under whatever conditions the new companies chose to impose.

In my opinion, what is lacking now in the railway industry is lack of co-ordination between the various companies, incompetent management at ground level (where nepotism is rife), but most of all experienced, dedicated staff. I speak as an ex-employee. - J Horrels, Hartlepool.

SPELLING

HOW nice that the Government has moved to ensure that children carry on spelling scientific terms in the time-honoured English way (Echo, Nov 26). Spelling foetus and sulphur correctly is all very well, but it is a sad fact that many children can't spell far more simple words. Perhaps correct spelling should be given a higher priority right from the earliest days of schooling, then fourteen-year-olds would cope better with all their subjects, not only science. - EA Moralee, Billingham

PATRIOTISM

SURELY, only the onset of a degree of madness can explain the Prime Minister's sudden appointment of a Minister of Patriotism for Britain. Whoever heard of such madness outside the scenes of a Gilbert & Sullivan comic opera or George Orwell's 1984.

Tony Blair's reasoning for such a ridiculous appointment could only spring from his well-known insidious intention to sign away our national independence and sovereignty under the Treaty of Nice; an intention he has boasted long enough about since last February. The all conquering Prime Minister has indeed long ago decided that his own (no doubt sincere but nevertheless flawed) personal religio-political convictions give him the right (and the authority) to dictate to the whole of the British people that their future shall lie tied up in the pseudo-democratic (but actually near enough Fascist) empire of EuroLand.

How much longer can Labour MPs and supporters be expected to cover up their disdain and objections to the despicable exercise being perpetrated by Tony Blair and his equally unethical and treacherous racing tipster, Foreign Secretary Robin Cook?

Doesn't everyone naturally recall the lines of Dr Johnson that "patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel".

Tony, what a mess vanity can get you into. Please, don't now start telling us of your "honourable intentions" what with these and your barmy Euro army you are surely past your shelf life. - Alan Rook, Newcastle.

SPENDING

EVERYBODY realises that they are constantly being persuaded to buy things they don't need. You would hardly be called a social commentator for pointing out such an obvious fact. We only, after all, need food, water, clothes and a roof over our heads. A defining symptom of modern life is that some people fall for marketing ploys day in day out, all year round.

Christmas, however, being the major celebration in the Christian calendar, is the one occasion we can actually justify spending on non-essentials; gifts and festivities for family and friends. Although Sharosn Griffiths uses the hackneyed term Scrooge, has she actually read Dickens' Christmas Carol? - D Bowlby, Darlington.

TIDAL BARRAGE

I WAS surprised by your article (Echo, Nov 28) in which five Yorkshire farmers claimed to have compelled the Environment Agency to carry out an investigation into the impact of the Barmby Tidal Barrage on local ings.

Our case in the High Court was that the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust's position was irrelevant because the Lower Derwent Project, which is now in its second phase, included an assessment of the impact of the barrage on the catchment. We were carrying out the project in co-operation with Yorkshire Water, because of our own concern for the barrage's impact.

The aim of the project has been to look at sustainable management of the water resources of the lower Derwent. To do this we have always recognised that it is essential to examine all factors, including the impact of the barrage.

It remains our view that YWT wasted a great deal of their money and ours in unnecessarily bringing the case to court. Claiming to have compelled the agency to undertake a project that is already up and running is a little rich. - Roger Hyde, Regional Director, Environment Agency.

MIDDLESBROUGH

BARBARA Wren, Middlesbrough Town Centre Manager, is pleased that the retailers in the town are happy with the pilot pedestrianisation we have suffered for a month. The bus passengers have the opposite opinion. I think the only winners from the scheme will be the Cleveland Centre retailers since many of the bus services terminate and commence from the centre or the town hall.

The loss to the town will be more apparent in the Hill Street Centre since a great many customers cannot carry shopping loads from these shops to the town hall and then stand in a wind tunnel to await buses.

Whilst Middlesborough Borough Council and Arriva continue to blame one another I hope they are aware that cars do not have to end their journey in Middlesbrough. Some of us are fortunate we can take our trade to the more shopper-friendly areas. - J Wagstaff, Middlesbrough.