Letters

WHATEVER has happened to this land of ours? In the past 30 years, really since we went into the Common Market, everything has gone downhill.

Our laws have been changed without our agreement and it seems as if we have no say at all in these matters.

When a child cannot play outside without being molested and then murdered there must be something radically wrong with our country and our system.

If the evil person is caught everything seems to be in his favour and he may serve his time in prison, then let out.

That cannot be right. Surely someone must be able to see this and it must be time to get back to a system of punishment to fit the crime.

Unless things alter, God knows where we are going to end up. - A Parkin, Bishop Auckland.

SINGLE CURRENCY

I RECENTLY attended, at the Hallgarth Hotel in Darlington, a meeting entitled "Keeping an Independent Pound", chaired by Sir Michael Spicer MP with keynote speakers including John Redwood.

The meeting was well organised and hosted by The Federation of Small Businesses, Darlington Branch, under the banner of Northern Congress for Democracy.

The whole meeting was well attended and the serious questions of the pound and the euro were discussed at length. The whole of the proceedings were reported by BBC TV and time was given to the meeting both in the news and the Sunday programme, North of Westminster.

An important subject with eminent speakers was taking place in Tony Blair's "backyard" but there was not a mention of the subject at all in The Northern Echo.

A few days later, on the front page, there was a story about a 16-year-old boy found drunk in London - the PM's son.

The question to be asked is: has the Press got its priorities right? - Colin Stratton, , Middleton St George, Darlington.

ASYLUM SEEKERS

A NUMBER of recent correspondents have suggested that those who are concerned about the numbers of asylum-seekers coming to Britain are being intimidated, shouted down or browbeaten.

Who by? We have even had the absurd suggestion (HAS, July 3) of a loony leftie plot to destabilise capitalism by flooding us with foreigners.

We have a humanitarian responsibility to help people fleeing from war or persecution, and this is enshrined in international law and the UN Charter. Hardly the work of loony lefties.

Illegal immigration is a different though connected issue, but asylum seekers present no cultural, economic or social threat, especially in view of the numbers who return to their own countries when it is safe to do so.

There are not enough refugees in the entire world to outnumber the British and we offer sanctuary to a tiny proportion - just 0.9 per cent.

The annual cost of supporting asylum seekers is about £375m. Compare this to the £176m in tax paid by just one British company, Marks & Spencer, which was founded by a refugee.

The only social threat comes from those who incite xenophobia, either through ignorance or in pursuit of a racist political agenda. - Pete Winstanley, Chester-le-Street.

FOOTBALL HOOLIGANS

OUR civil liberties have been hard won over many centuries and have cost many lives.

A Government we hoped would support them is now eroding them. I hold no brief for football hooligans, but the innocent and the maybe-guilty are set to be swept aside by Jack Straw's draconian proposals.

Confiscating passports because a policeman doesn't like the look of someone's tattoos (Echo, July 8) sounds very much like a return to the obnoxious "SUS" laws which blighted community relations in London.

The police themselves are already indicating that such plans may be unworkable, and that hasty law is likely to be bad law.

And if past behaviour is to be used as a guide to the future, does that mean that Master Blair is likely to be banned from travelling to overseas football matches? - Robin Ashby, Gosforth, Newcastle.

PETROL TAX

THE essence of taxation is that it should be fair and be seen to be fair.

The essentials of life should be taxed, if at all, at a low rate but the principle has been departed from in the case of road fuel. Petrol and diesel may not be as necessary to life as some other things, but they have a vital role to play, not just in moving goods and services, but in providing personal transport.

Fifty years ago, when towns were more compact, a car was a luxury, but since then we have developed a society which, in most cases, is entirely dependent on the motor car and this will be very difficult to reverse.

For most town dwellers public transport may be adequate on week days, but is a long way from being so in the evening and on Sundays. Outside towns it may never be adequate.

It cannot be denied that excessive use of the motor car is environmentally unfriendly, but so is the use of any fuel; and no other fuel, particularly aviation fuel, is taxed at anything like the rate at which road fuels are taxed. - PW Elliott, Eaglescliffe, Stockton.

MINERS' GALA

TONY Blair's snub to the Durham Miners' Gala was a perfect illustration of the contempt he holds for the traditional Labour Party and an insult to the hard-working people of County Durham.

The split between Old Labour and Mr Blair's New Labour is growing.

Tony Blair can turn his back on the people of the North-East, because at the next election we will turn our backs on him. - Michael Fishwick, Thornley, Durham.