FUEL

SO farmer Andrew Spence, one of the organisers of the fuel protest, likens their plight to the most dignified protest in British history, the Jarrow March.

He urges slow moving vehicles to cripple our roads if the Government refuses to surrender to blackmail.

They leave home, big warm houses, acres of land, Volvos and Land Rovers and will not be short of food on their journey.

In contrast, the Jarrow men, who marched in 1936 borrowed clothing, slept where they could and lived off food given to them by villagers on their way.

At home they left tiny terraced houses with families who did not know where their next crust of bread was coming from.

What a slur and an insult to the heroes of Jarrow when farmers and hauliers put the word blackmail on the same footing as poverty. Some of the men are scabs who drove through the miners' and dockers' picket lines, they also brought Britain to its knees in September, but a certain William Hague thinks they are fine upstanding citizens.

I will use your catchphrase Willie, "what waffle". - JL Thompson, Crook.

I AGREE that fuel prices are too high. Shell, BP etc have a lot to answer for.

I do not agree with self-elected protesters manning picket lines, threatening to blockade wherever or whatever takes their fancy.

I think they are in for a shock if they expect widespread public support this time; mob rule is not popular in this country and the tacky PR attempt to portray themselves as latter day Jarrow marchers will alienate many people.

I would be interested to know how these protesters facing poverty can afford so much time off work, picketing and trundling up and down roads using up fuel. - J Wilson, Peterlee.

I AM amazed that our Prime Minister, together with the Greens, would dare to blame the internal combustion engine for the recent floods.

I had credited them with more intelligence.

May I inform Tony Blair and the Greens that the motor car was not yet invented in the days of Noah and subsequent floods?

I thought that holding such an important position Tony Blair would have already known that fact. This does dispel any confidence, however small, which I may have had in him, however mistakenly.

Tony and the Greens, it has been a very poor excuse to try and get away with unfair stealth taxes. By the way, God is in charge, not Tony Blair. Thank God. - Rev Ted Spiller, Thornton-le-Moor.

THE British public are seen at their best when responding to some worthy cause like the Children in Need Appeal and at their worst when faced with an appeal not to buy more than their regular need of some commodity, thereby creating scarcity.

Those who have inflicted a shortage of motor fuel on their fellow motorists by hoarding the stuff in cans would do well to study their home insurance policies. Very few insurers will accept a claim for fire damage where there is evidence that the claimant had petrol or diesel unusually stored on his premises. - Bob Jarratt, Richmond.

STEALTH TAX

COUNCILLOR Stephen Smailes tells us (HAS, Nov 3) that Gordon Brown has increased taxation by stealth, but the Chancellor does not need to increase anything by stealth. It is his job to increase or decrease taxes as he sees fit.

Every Chancellor, from whatever political party, has to raise money to pay for schools, hospitals, pensions, farmers etc and where else does he get his money from.

Every year in his budget the Chancellor explains his spending plans for the coming year. How much income he will have from taxes and how he will spend that income.

We are lucky indeed to have such a man as Gordon Brown. - RM Long, Peterlee.

THE contribution by Councillor Stephen Smailes (HAS, Nov 3) should not remain unchallenged.

There is nothing stealthy about any of the tax modifications to which he refers and if the Tories had won the 1997 election inflation and many increases to which he refers, would have remained higher, especially petrol and fuel oil.

For the Tories to accuse Labour of taxation by stealth is the ultimate example of the pan calling the kettle black.

What about the swingeing cost increases in National Insurance contributions, medical prescriptions, eye tests and dental treatment, robbing the pension of £22 per week by severing the earnings to pensions link and many others. Broken promises? Remember the NHS Safe in our Hands? Why then is it costing billions of pounds to restore it?

Remember 'we will have a home owning democracy.' For thousands of people this meant having their homes repossessed.

Or what about 'we wish to see wealth cascade down from generation to generation'. What did we see? We saw thousands of the elderly stripped of their assets to pay for their care. Stephen Smailes is absolutely correct in his contention that the voters will remember broken promises, especially those made and broken by his party. - Alan Benn, Bedale.

OMAGH BOMBING

INSTEAD of dishing up political clap-trap from the likes of Ray Mallon, I would like to suggest that The Northern Echo joins with the Daily Mail in its campaign to raise the finances to enable the victims of the Omagh Bombing to bring the murderers to account.

Speaking with Bertie Ahern at his shoulder, Tony Blair stood in Omagh the day after what he called a blast of evil and vowed that the two of them would crush those responsible. Two years on and it took the Panorama programme to expose the suspects. - JE Thompson, Durham.

TWO VIEWS

HOW many Andrew Lightfoots of Bridlington are there?

One Andrew Lightfoot (HAS, Nov 1) writes in praise of the torture and murder of innocent people accused of witchcraft in spite of the fact that there could be no evidence against them since casting spells on one's neighbour's cattle never worked. This is probably the same Mr Lightfoot who wrote in praise of General Pinochet, whose regime tortured and murdered innocent people in their thousands.

It must be a different Andrew Lightfoot who appears to hold all life as sacred. This one recently invoked the sanctity of life to argue that the conjoined twins, so recently in the news, should not be separated thus condemning both to a very short, painful life measured in months since only one had heart and lungs.

There must be two Andrew Lightfoots surely. - Eric Gendle, Middlesbrough.