Letters

THIS is a letter to the person who hit the ginger cat with their car on Tyne Road, Stanley, on Wednesday, July 26 at approximately 11pm. If you are reading this then you know who you are.

You hit our cat then drove off leaving him still alive, terribly injured, in the middle of the road.

I accept that our cat ran out in front of you and you probably could not avoid him, but if you had an ounce of compassion then you would have stopped and seen he had an identity disc with our phone number on it. One simple phone call would have alerted us to his plight. We would have been there in seconds.

If it had not been for the kind person who found him and carried him into their home before phoning us then he would have lay there suffering all night.

The words I would use to describe you are unprintable in this newspaper. Yes, I know you don't care because I know what type of person you are.

To any person who hits a cat with their car, please stop and check for an identity disc. Please inform somebody. Do not just callously drive off and leave them. Please realise that the cat will be a much loved part of somebody's family. - P Barrass, Stanley.

TEACHER TRAINING

FOLLOWING the Government's much-trumpeted teacher training salary of £6,000, I would like to highlight the following.

I am English. I intend to teach in England (and have been doing so for the last six months). However, I am about to undergo teacher training (PGCE) at the University of Edinburgh. Because this is in Scotland, I will not be eligible to receive any teacher training salary whatsoever.

It seems that as the handling system changed from local education authorities to Government, all PGCE applicants studying anywhere in England or Wales will receive the £6,000 salary, but Scotland is not part of this scheme.

After talking to the GTTR, TTA, and numerous boards in Scotland, there is no other avenue to try, and although my tuition fees will be paid, I must fund my living expenses for the year myself.

This is hardly an incentive for me to return to England on qualifying. As there is such a shortage of teachers currently, it seems unbelievable that my nationality prevents me from receiving funding (if I was Scottish, I would receive funding without question). Surely, the fact that I have crossed a border should not affect the teacher training salary? After all I'll probably be teaching in England. - Tracey Taylor, Ferryhill, Co Durham.

CABINET SECRECY

IN THEIR letters (HAS, July 26) PA Eddy and Alan Kelly once again make distorted statements concerning the cabinet system of local government.

PA Eddy has consistently stated for many months there should be no secret meetings where large sums of public money are being allocated.

His views, if they ever became statutory law, would have serious complications for the police as well as the medical and legal professions.

Hilary Armstrong MP, the Local Government Minister, has stated on more than one occasion that after a nationwide survey the new legislation will have an open cabinet system with an allowance for closed sessions on sensitive issues.

Alan Kelly stated that the principles of socialism have been sacrificed on the altar of modernisation. He is wrong and if he ever attends a Durham Miners' Gala he will see them in large print on all the banners.

Education, industrial relations and the care of the sick and elderly are still as relevant today as they have been for the past 100 years and which is why the present Government is implementing them as core values.

Change requires patience not panic, study not sarcasm, vision not vilification. - Thomas Conlon, Spennymoor.

POLITICS

DOES the electorate really expect the Government to solve the country's problems in three years when the Tories could not do it in 18 years?

We have a very good Government and it has made a good start in trying to find lasting solutions to some difficult problems.

As one lady said in a letter recently, why is it we are bombarded in the media with criticism of things that could be better in the NHS but there is very little about the excellent treatment given to millions of people by dedicated consultants, doctors, nurses and all the other support staff?

The Tories keep saying the NHS is breaking down and people are losing confidence in it - what rubbish!

These are the gestures of a party that knows it is heading for defeat at the next election, doubtless the scare tactics will continue up to polling day.

I listen in vain for something constructive to come from William Hague, but all I hear is his uncivilised rhetoric about asylum seekers, how poorly dressed pupils will be sent home from school and, would you credit it, a massive expansion of the grammar school programme, resulting in a two tier education system. He has also gone back on his promise to cut taxes.

Mr Blair has shown courage, determination and statesmanship and his Government deserves to be re-elected. - Hugh Pender, Darlington.

SURELY Mr Blair should hang his head in shame over the economic situation in the North-East.

The working man is being taxed more than ever, crime is out of control, our manufacturing base is completely disappearing and the majority of the local population still continues to vote Labour, just like lambs to the slaughter.

When are North-East people going to realise Labour is a party of losers. What has it ever done to combat crime?

We have the answer: bring back the birch, the death penalty. Tough no-nonsense policing is required to meet violence with violence. Young, innocent children being murdered by sick individuals who do not deserve to live and should be hanged.

Mr Blair and his cronies do not have the guts to take these decisions and never will. - Rob Richardson, Bishop Auckland.

GO FOR it Tony! Haul down the white flag in Downing Street, send all those white feathers back to the Conservatives. They broadcast to the world that you have not got the bottle to call for a referendum on the euro, that you tremble with fear when you are confronted by William "the Conqueror" Hague at the Dispatch Box.

We just shrug that off. Show them all you are No 1, the greatest politician of all time, the most popular Prime Minister on the planet.

You will get your yes vote to the acceptance of the euro plus your second term of office - and the third and fourth. You have crushed all opposition with your wizardry of manipulating the electorate. Support for New Labour is even greater than in 1997. The Tories are on the run. Strike while the irons are hot. They could disappear without trace. - GW Bainbridge, Hartlepool.

IT WAS a shame a reporter was unable to attend the euro debate held at Darlington's Dolphin Centre on July 27.

A lot of the important questions the pro-euro lobby was asked were met with laughter from Peter Freitag, the pro-euro representative.

On this point I have to agree. It is a joke what is happening to this country.

That is the reason more and more young people are wearing the lapel badges and Save the Pound baseball caps with pride. - Paul Thompson, Darlington.

LEO'S CHRISTENING

I TOTALLY agree with what The Northern Echo said about Leo Blair's christening (Echo, July 3). When Tony Blair was looking for votes he would kiss anyone in front of a camera. Now when the papers try and show his baby they get reported to the Press Complaints Commission.

Mr Blair and his wife both knew what to expect when he ran for Prime Minister. Now he is in No 10 he can forget privacy - people like to see what they voted for.

No doubt the people of Sedgefield would like to know how much it cost to hold the christening in the village. The police were there from the early hours until late night; cones were everywhere, preventing the usual people from parking.

So come on Mr Blair, how much did this christening cost the ratepayers of Sedgefield district? - Mrs May, Sedgefield Village.