09/08/05

This is how New Labour legislation has affected the innocent.

Starting a new job: you have to provide photographic proof of identity (eg passport).

Buying a house: personal delivery to your solicitor of photographic proof of identity (passport, driving licence) and current address.

Protection of Vulnerable Adults: secret meetings between social workers, police and health authorities held to discuss individual carers.

Now ID registration. The following is being proposed: Everyone over 16 has to register by providing iris readings, fingerprints, facial photos, name, date and place of birth, nationality, immigration status and address. Failure to register: maximum penalty of £2,500.

Failure to advise of changes in circumstances (eg change of address): fine of £1,000. Continued failure to provide information: maximum fine of £2,500.

Use of public services will require an ID card.

Ultimately, with enough fear and hatred generated by politicians and media, an amendment will be made, making carrying of ID cards mandatory, leading to police checks and demands to produce our ID card.

Stop this bill now. - Clive Thompson, (DurhamSaysNo2ID), Durham.

DAY CARE SERVICES

MR Routledge is right to acknowledge changes taking place in day care services for people with a learning disabilities (HAS, Aug 2).

These are in keeping with what the Government, service users and carers tell us are needed because they improve choice, independence and well-being.

Durham County Council is proud that an independent inspection has ranked it among the top authorities for learning disability services. In recent times we have helped more than 200 people to obtain real work, and celebrated 27 athletes who returned from the Glasgow Special Olympics with gold, silver or bronze medals.

The county council is also committed to working in partnership with statutory, voluntary and private providers of services, and uses well-established protocols for selecting them.

Consequently, I want to reassure the public that, irrespective of who provides services, the same level of accountability remains with this authority. - Councillor Christine Smith, Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Health, Durham County Council.

AFRICAN POVERTY

IT does not take a genius to see why there is so much poverty in the world.

Industrial countries like the US, the UK, France and Germany are to blame for poverty throughout the world. They have all depressed food prices while industrial prices and white workers' salaries have exploded.

Today, farmers and food producers have to produce 20 or 30 times as much produce to buy the industrial goods they needed 50 years ago.

During the Second World War, my uncle was paid £80 per ton for malting barley for the brewers to make beer, which sold to the public at 9d per pint. Today, it is a hard job to get £80 per tonne for malting barley and beer is £1.50 plus a pint. I know there is a lot of tax in this price.

The cost of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is ridiculous but not the pittance that farmers get from it.

Farmers need protection from the supermarket and strict legislation is needed about how much can be added between the farm gate and the consumer.

Milk and red meats should have a 100 per cent increase - this would give the farmer half of what the consumer pays. Wool carpets 200 per cent - this would give the manufacturer 100 per cent mark-up and the retailer 50 per cent. At present, farmers selling carpet wool don't get enough money to cover the cost of shearing the sheep.

If this system was adopted, all overpaid staff of Defra could be sacked. - John Ross, (retired farmer) Tow Law.

GENERAL SYNOD

IN recent years there has been more than one review of the lifestyle enjoyed by bishops in the Church of England. Such reviews by the Church Commissioners have been weak and expenses have risen year by year.

Last year, bishops are reported to have claimed £18.5m in expenses. In days of old, the church appointed over 100 bishops, when travel was by stagecoach, correspondence was by quill pen and post and the Church was awash with money. That number of bishops was probably justified.

Today, we live in a different world. Travel is fast by car, train and plane; communication is instantaneous by telephone, computers and email. Today, churches have closed, churchgoers are dwindling and many parishes have been amalgamated.

Is it now time that the General Synod of the Church of England should learn to cut its cloth in proportion to the depth of its pocket?

The number of bishops could be reduced by half and their mansions sold. This would result in the Church being leaner and its finances more attuned to today's conditions. - Bill Strahan, Durham.

HOUSING STOCK

PETER Dolan (HAS, July 23) implied that the Prime Minister was out of touch with his constituents and was only interested in autocratic rule.

Mr Blair actually stated that, while he disagreed with the result of the Sedgefield Borough housing stock transfer ballot, he was satisfied the tenants had been given the opportunity of making a choice.

As the MP for Sedgefield, Mr Blair offered his constituents who are council tenants the opportunity of receiving millions of pounds to improve their dwellings.

The attitude of those who led the opposition to the transfer reminds me of the story of a medical missionary who went to an African village to safeguard the villagers against disease.

He was gaining the confidence of the people when the local witch doctor arrived and he immediately berated the villagers for listening to new ideas instead of using the traditional method of consulting the entrails of a newly-slaughtered chicken. They concurred, so the missionary departed.

Later when an epidemic killed most of them, the witch doctor was seen in a safe village looking for poultry.

One day, the tenants who voted against the transfer and those who persuaded them to do so may learn the meaning of the saying: "Never bite the hand that feeds you". - Thomas Conlon, Spennymoor.

NAKED ART

I AM in complete agreement with Tony Kelly's letter (HAS, July 27) regarding the so-called 'art' in which hundreds of naked people threw themselves about with such abandon on Tyneside.

Mr Kelly is absolutely right when he says that we have descended into moral and intellectual squalor.

This descent in our region was started with the rusting heap of junk that rejoices under the name of Angel of the North.

The artist who was allowed to foist this monstrosity on us went on to wrap naked exhibitionists in plaster of Paris to create what he called art.

Artists from da Vinci to LS Lowry will be turning in their graves. - PA Aspinall, Crook.