Letters

RECENT negative publicity generated over removal of the tidy village award sign, intended for Thornley near Tow Law but mistakenly erected in Thornley outside Durham City (Echo, Oct 11), should not be an indictment of the village, rather of the problem of litter in all villages.

The incident should not undermine genuine efforts by residents and councillors to improve the village's appearance or people's pride in Thornley. We all need to make bigger efforts in tackling litter, vandalism and graffiti, but Thornley has a positive future and we have a lot to be proud of. - Michael Fishwick, Parish Councillor, Thornley.

PENSIONS

DOES Tony Richmond (HAS, Nov 7) really expect us to believe it is Labour's fault the pensioners' pittance is what it is? Does he so readily forget it was Maggie Thatcher who stopped pensions rising at a proper rate?

Labour howled when she did so, protesting that pensioners needed more money. But, as in the case of selling off our railways, steel, water, gas and electric, Labour never had the backbone to right the Tories' wrongs.

And, when Labour came to power, it quickly forgot about the Conservative stealth taxes and added some of its own.

Neither side has any intention of helping the pensioners and the sooner the public realises this the sooner we will have a government that will help us. - K Archbold, Bishop Auckland.

THE DOME

I WAS rather surprised to hear William Hague criticise the Millennium Dome in the House of Commons since he was a member of the previous government committee which planned the building of the Dome in the first place. - W Gargett, Durham.

NATIONALISM

HOW has Tony Blair the gall to lay a wreath at the Cenotaph and, at the same time, prepare to sign the Nice Treaty, having already signed the Amsterdam Treaty.

Heath, Thatcher, Major and now Blair should all be tried for treason.

I was not born until after the Second World War, but I thank God that so many were prepared to sacrifice their lives so that I could live in a free, independent country.

How many of them could ever have believed that these misguided individuals could sign away what they paid the ultimate price for.

You can imagine the silence on Remembrance Day being broken by Churchill saying: "Why did so many give so much so that so few can give it away". - Stephen Feaster, Chairman, United Kingdom Independence Party, Ryedale Branch.

JAPANESE POWS

I AM astounded at the Government at its payment of £10,000 to the POWs who suffered at the hands of the Japanese during the Second World War. There are, we are told, 4,000 of them left.

What about the thousands who came back and died through the injuries they received at the hands of torturers? What about the wives and families who saw their loved ones slowly die? They deserve something.

What kind of a nation was it that knew the atrocities its army was committing? What sort of emperor was it who saw what kind of atrocities his army was committing and did nothing about it but then be honoured by our Queen years later?

A nation which has never said sorry, an emperor who never said sorry and now our Government and Prime Minister are saying sorry on behalf of the Japanese nation, and also paying its debts. - John E Brown, Trimdon Village.

WETLANDS

IT is high time Stockton Council got off the fence and supported the people of the Tees Valley who, for five years, have requested that the local plan be changed to give permanent protection and re-designation for the Three Holmes Winter Wildfowl Wetlands site which is a unique and priceless natural habitat for wild birds and plants.

The changing weather is a sign of man's futility, and building on our natural flood plains not only destroys local wildlife habitats but also takes away nature's river safety valve which has been created for the very purpose of excess water.

According to Dr David Bellamy, 94 per cent of the wetlands on Teesside have disappeared so the question must be asked: where does the water go?

If the answer might be in our homes, then it is high time the whole attitude to developing and building in the river valleys is re-examined for, apart from our local wildfowl, we might just become locally extinct as well. - Ian Jennis, Stockton.

FUEL TAX

WE all would like to see tax on fuel lower but let's face up to the situation. If the Government was to lower the tax on fuel it would have to put the tax on something else, providing we still required more money for old people, better schools and hospitals.

I hope that if the Government was at any time required to use the army to transport fuel around the country and break the picket lines, the hauliers would remain peaceful. I would not like the army to do what the hauliers and lorry drivers did when the mineworkers were on the picket lines.

After the pre-Budget statement it would seem that this is more a political issue by the hauliers who are trying to do what the mineworkers tried to do and put the Government out of power. - G Hall, Crook.

BARNETT FORMULA

THE decision of the Government not to alter or abolish the Barnett Formula, which is used to decide the amounts of public money going to the regions of Britain, shows that New Labour is taking the voters of the North-East for granted.

The amount of money going to Scotland far outstrips the amount going to the North-East even though this region has a much higher rate of unemployment than Scotland and Scotland now has its own parliament.

There has been a long-running Liberal Democrat campaign to have the Barnett Formula changed for a more equitable distribution of government money among the regions, especially the North-East.

This decision is simply another slap in the face for the people of this region from this Government. - Martin Jones, Secretary, Spennymoor Branch Liberal Democrats.