26/08/05

The interview was conducted by Geordie Greig, who is a well respected gentleman. His family have had connections with the Royal Family since the time of George VI and our late Queen Mother.

In fact, it was a member of his family who was instrumental in the then Duke of York plucking up courage to ask Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon to marry him.

Contributing to The Tatler, we have Freddy Windsor, Simon Parker Bowles and his sister and Clare Mitford-Haven.

Do a little more research before making scathing remarks. - AE Young-Patterson, Shildon.

GLOBAL WARMING

Those people who object to every wind turbine installation have obviously not read the article about a massive area in Siberia where, if the permafrost melts, a very large amount of methane gas will be released, apparently 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide, into the atmosphere and hastening global warming unduly.

Get you priorities right. Our world could turn into a desert, like it already has in parts of Africa. - Fred M Atkinson, Shincliffe.

ASYLUM SEEKERS

I AM writing to correct the three inaccuracies in your article regarding asylum seekers (Echo, Aug 18).

You seem to think that the terms asylum seeker and refugee can be used interchangeably - they can't. A person remains an asylum seeker until their case is complete and the Home Office is satisfied that they meet the criteria fixed under the Geneva Refugee Convention of 1951. At that point they become a refugee.

Once refugee status is granted, the person is no longer allowed to remain in accommodation provided by a Home Office housing provider. The person has to find alternative accommodation through the usual channels, normally private landlords. This therefore means that your phrase, "refugee-designated properties" is wrong. Also, as refugees are granted permission to work, they can live in whichever part of the country they like. So, if there are more refugees in the south, it is because they chose to remain there after being granted the right to stay.

The 33,930 asylum applications which were received last year is rather misleading. According to Kate Allen, Chairperson of Amnesty International UK, the Government is aiming to fast-track as many applications as possible. This means that a large percentage of this number will have been taken directly to a detention centre, had their case heard and subsequently rejected. In some cases it is possible that people are in and out of the country in less than a week.

The North-East has a long history of welcoming people and long may it continue. Please help us to continue in this work by reporting facts, and facts in context. - Pauline Cassim, Hartlepool.

BUS SERVICES

I WOULD like to respond to the letter regarding Arriva bus services in Newton Aycliffe (HAS, Aug 15).

Unfortunately, bus services also suffer from the ever-increasing congestion on our roads, in this case affecting the travel time into and out of Darlington on North Road.

In order to restore reliability to the 213 service, the decision was made to withdraw from Woodham and re-route via Central Avenue. Coupled with the withdrawal of the lightly used service 13, this would have left Woodham without any through bus services, hence the decision to divert the 723 via Woodham.

For passengers in East Aycliffe, the 213 follows the identical route of the previous 723 using the same bus stops in East Aycliffe, the only difference being the final destination of Sunderland rather than Durham. Admittedly, there is a reduced frequency of service on this part of Central Avenue, but these services should now be operating with greater reliability.

Unfortunately, Newton Aycliffe is no different to the rest of the country in reflecting a national decline in bus usage. It is unfair to blame either Arriva or the county council, which are both working hard at trying to reverse this trend.

To this end, I am presently arranging a joint meeting of the bus company, Newton Aycliffe Town Council with Durham County Council to discuss this matter further. - Sarah Iveson, Durham County Councillor (Aycliffe East).

FORGOTTEN ARMY

SIXTY years ago the war with Japan ended. I would like to thank the Forgotten Army, which included my father, who gave everything during that horrid conflict.

If my dad was alive today, he would have been 82. Although he died when I was just ten years old in 1982, I remember the stories he told me of his time in the jungle, and how he felt it an honour to fight for Great Britain and why he fought for this gallant nation.

Thank you, dad. As you and the Forgotten Army shall, indeed, never be forgotten, I salute you all. - Christopher Wardell, Darlington.

WARTIME PLEA

Funded by the Economic and Social Research Council of Great Britain and writing a PhD in the Department of History at Lancaster University, I'm researching male and female veterans' experiences of the Second World War, including specifically the experiences of gay and lesbian service personnel.

Please help if you can, or if you served with men or women who were gay. I'd also be interested to hear from you if you knew gay personnel in the war, or of someone who left their wartime memories behind.

I need to record your stories before they are lost forever. Confidentiality is assured. Contact Emma Vickers, Department of History, Furness College, University of Lancaster, Lancaster, LA1 4YG or e-mail e.vickers@lancaster.ac.uk. - Emma Vickers, Lancaster University.

SMOKING BAN

Thank God the Government has finally woken up in the 21st century and announced the decision to ban smoking in all public places.

However well meaning past anti-smoking campaigns have been, they have always failed to tackle the two real evils driving this endemic problem.

Firstly, peer pressure from ignorant bullies in our youth culture, who teach a young person that moral integrity is "uncool", and that to descend into perverted substance abuse somehow initiates them into adulthood and street cred.

Most tragic of all is that teenage girls are taught by commercialism that their womanly body shapes are somehow unattractive, and that nicotine abuse is necessary for artificially suppressing their appetites and starving them into having thin, childlike figures - so they can emulate models such as Kate Moss.

Girls, please take this to your hearts: there's nothing more beautiful that a natural, fully-fledged womanly figure.

The second evil is the hypocrisy of governments - the most wretched junkies of all - as they are so dependent on the huge sums of revenue generated by tobacco sales. These cowards would rather go on prostituting the health and integrity of their population than risk their political careers by criminalising this perversion, and pulling in that revenue shortfall from somewhere else. - David Lucas, Kettering.