Letters

WHAT possible benefit is there to having health warnings on tobacco products, as demanded by politicians in Brussels.

Knowledge of the potential health risks of smoking is already at saturation level and more information can only entrench warning fatigue. The new measures have no practical use, other than job creation for over-funded bureaucrats, and simply attack the perfectly legitimate lifestyle of many millions of European consumers.

The situation is no better here in the UK, where the House of Commons Health Committee report on smoking predictably endorses the anti-smoker dogma that has blighted the smoking debate for far too many years.

Instead of spending taxpayers' money forcing people to conform to a politically correct lifestyle, surely we should be finding ways to accommodate, the many millions of smokers (who aren't going to go away) without inconveniencing non-smokers, tolerant or otherwise.

Sadly, even if the EU is forced by the courts to reject a ban on tobacco advertising, the UK Government will press ahead and introduce its own domestic legislation.

What a missed opportunity for a fresh start. The smoking debate is going nowhere until the health police learn to respect the rights of adults who choose to consume tobacco.

Meanwhile, the anti-smokers' philosophy is eating away like a cancer at our otherwise tolerant society. - Martin Ball, FOREST campaigns director, London.

TRADE UNIONS

AS a works convener for many years, before retirement I realised that workers were expendable - to be hired when needed and fired when not needed. So I ask, what use are trade unions?

Except as cash collectors for the Labour Party, the answer is no use at all.

Workers lose their jobs through closures, mergers, and companies relocating abroad or restructuring, which means when profits are down the workforce is first victim.

In all these cases, trade unions can do nothing. The workers who have paid union dues over the years have just wasted their money.

In the modern industrial world trade unions have no place. Workers would be better represented by works councils.

Workers who belong to a union should take a good look at the trade unions and ask themselves, are my interests being looked after or am I just being used? - H Outhwaite, Darlington.

GAY PARENTS

I FIND it disgusting that two homosexual men were given the right to adopt two new-born babies.

Thousands of straight couples wait years to be able to foster kids but, because of their wealth and new age sexuality, Tony Barlow and Barrie Drewitt got their wish and they now plan to adopt another poor child.

A law should be made to stop all homosexuals from adopting children on moral grounds.

I find the laws and regulations of Labour's New Britain a disgrace. Parents are a mother and father and not a Tony and Barrie. - Christopher Wardell, Darlington.

FUEL COSTS

WITH the spiralling cost of petrol, one wonders if John Prescott will achieve a traffic-free country.

America has one of the cheapest petrol prices in the world and is a prosperous country. We have one of the highest petrol prices in the world. Shouldn't that tell the politicians something?

It is not just car owners who pay the price of petrol. Everything bought in the shops has been delivered by road and, of course, the price is passed over to the customer. - E Reynolds, Wheatley Hill.

COMPENSATION CLAIMS

RECENT handling of police cases in the public eye has left a lot to be desired.

The horrendous amount of money paid to the woman police officer in a recent out of court settlement was a disgraceful mismanagement of public funds.

No doubt no one will claim responsibility for this cavalier largesse with our money, but perhaps if these faceless wonders were made to account for their expensive follies the dispensing of our cash to all and sundry would be tested in the public domain before being handed over.

Once again, the winners in this case, apart from the recipient of our largesse, will be the legal profession and its acolytes, while the public coffers will be the sorry losers. - David Colling, Bishop Auckland.

ROYAL MARRIAGE

SINCE it is abundantly clear that Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles are not going to part, they should get married.

Living together does not set a good example and does nothing to uphold the moral standards that should be set by the Royal Family.

There may be constitutional problems to be solved but surely it can be done.

As for a future Queen Camilla, time enough to start worrying about that when and if Prince Charles succeeds to the throne.

Prince Charles says he does not intend to marry again. It is quite understandable why he should say this. After all, he did lie before God and the nation when he made his marriage vows. Nevertheless, it would give people more reason to believe and trust him if he made his vows and this time sincerely kept them. - EA Moralee, Billingham, Stockton