Letters

I ATTENDED the WI meeting at Wembley and would like to clear up some of the confusion that has arisen.

Firstly, the WI is a political organisation. Ever since its inception we have campaigned on every type of issue to improve the lot of women whatever government is in power.

All our resolutions come from the grass-roots, and this year were moved by Nettlebed WI, Oxfordshire, Westonzoyland WI, Somerset and Rhosnesni & Abenbury WI, Clwyd-Denbigh - none of which are hot beds of political intrigue.

Secondly, the Prime Minister asked to attend our meeting. He was not invited.

He was listened to with interest for over half-an-hour and applauded, but he then launched into a party political speech.

Undoubtedly, there were some present with strong political allegiances, but 10,000 women are not so easily led.

What we objected to was having our meeting hi-jacked for the PM's own ends.

We were there to debate the decline in rural post offices; to improve the care of stroke victims and to get Government funding for children's hospices. These are all political objectives but they are not party-political.

The WI aims to "build Jerusalem in England's green and pleasant land" not a Labour or a Conservative state. - Valerie Bedocs, Heighington

YOUR front page story (Echo, June 10) said: "Meanwhile Tony Blair has been invited back to address the WI next year. His spokesman said 'we're thinking about it'".

I have contacted our national office in London and people there insist no such personal invitation has been made to Tony Blair.

However, the WI will welcome any Prime Minster to address our meetings as the leader of the Government but NOT of his or her political party. - Dorothy Proud, Chairman, Durham County Federation of Women's Institutes.

I WAS a delegate at the WI meeting and I was ashamed and disgusted at the bad behaviour of some members. They were out of order.

There are other ways of showing one's displeasure and I feel our organisation has been brought into disrepute and the members ridiculed.

Mr Blair's speech at the beginning was very good, touching on the family, marriage and church, respect for one's parents, the elderly and, dare I say it, authority.

He quoted: "Let us put our minds together and make a world for our children."

He also asked for trust, which he unfortunately overlooked when he did not heed the advice of our national office to keep his speech non-political.

The important issues discussed during our conference were sadly overlooked by the media, as was the opening of the WI website by Mr Blair.

I have been a member of the WI for 28 years and have been a delegate on numerous occasions and I object to being labelled middle-aged and middle-class.

I am in my sixties, working class and very proud to come from County Durham.

This was a very good meeting, but sadly it will be remembered for all the wrong reasons. - LA Thompson, Hon Secretary, Coundon WI.

COULD someone please explain who Tony Blair's spin doctors are and how much they cost the nation?

Are they perhaps some Americans, as the razzmatazz certainly has the flavour of an American presidential campaign.

Perhaps if New Labour realised that this nation did exist before 1997 it would have known about an old English saying: "Don't do as we do, do as we say!"

The more this nation is threatened, the more the people rally together and thank their stars for the women of the WI. They show that common sense still prevails in this country. - Bryan J Allen, Newcastle upon Tyne.

HEALTH SERVICE

PART of the problem facing the NHS is that prior to the last election it was portrayed as falling apart and all we had to do was to vote Labour to put it right.

Robin Cook told us on television that, as a first step, £100m would be saved from the NHS by cutting red tape. In its election manifesto Labour promised to cut waiting lists by treating an extra 100,000 patients.

To further heighten the drama, on the day before the election Tony Blair proclaimed we had only one more day to save the NHS.

It is against these high expectations that we are entitled, three years later, to measure promises against performance.

All we hear now is that there is to be another "radical" plan to reform the NHS. This is no doubt a bit of window dressing prior to the next election.

If Alan Milburn wants a bit of advice on the NHS I can give it to him. Quite simply the NHS has not kept up with advances in medical science. - Stan Smith, South Shields.

THE Secretary of State for Health rightly praises the founding principles of a free and fair NHS.

But the World Health Organisation report which values our NHS also emphasises the inequalities which cause ill health.

Children are four times as likely to live in poverty in the UK's areas of worst health. The health and social care available to them, despite financial and organisational pressures, reduces this infant mortality by half.

This still means they are twice as likely to die early as children in areas experiencing the best health.

Improving the health of the whole population needs more than the NHS alone.

Tackling inequalities requires action from all Government departments - environment, education, employment, and crucially the Treasury - before people become patients.

Then both health and health services could top the league tables. - John Nicholson, Chief Executive, UK Public Health Association, Manchester.

WHY do you only print the bad news about Darlington Memorial Hospital and not mention the sheer hard work that goes on there and successful recoveries achieved.

I have just spent ten days in the Memorial and the care I had from the staff and doctors right down to the domestics was second to none.

I could not have been better looked after if I had been the Queen of England.

The Memorial Hospital is a wonderful place and this town would be badly off without it. - Christine E Percival, Darlington.

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

THE report that a high percentage of boys believe that it is all right for men to hit women because they "ask for it" (Echo, June 6) is very disturbing.

Such boys presumably also think it is all right for boys to hit girls.

Young people today are growing up in a society where violence surrounds them.

Television programmes all too often depict adults attacking each other as a way to settle arguments.

Soccer hooligans rampage in the streets; the news is full of wars. Even the computer games so loved by many children are based on violence.

Small wonder that children grow up with the idea that striking out is the thing to do.

The completely outdated idea that men should dominate women is still alive and well in many areas.

It is time to encourage far more self control, mutual respect and understanding and a barrel load of courtesy as the better way to settle disputes.

No woman deserves to be hit and no man should believe he has the right to exert his "manhood" by doing so, even if he does believe he was provoked. - E A Moralee, Billingham