30/11/05

If J Routledge was correct, councillors would have no right to sit on police and fire authorities, for example, and should be removed forthwith, thus denying local people any form of democratic representation on these important bodies.

The fact is that councillors provide a vital link between their own communities and the large number of other organisations that act in the public interest. My own district council, Wear Valley, elects members to over 70 local, regional and national bodies. They include Age Concern, Coalfields Communities Campaign, Durham Rural Community Council, Local Government Association, Market Towns Initiative, North Pennines Partnership, Sure Start, Tidy North, Victim Support, West Durham Groundwork Trust.

Removing democratically-elected representatives from these bodies would be detrimental to all concerned and particularly to the people we are elected to serve. There would be no cross-fertilisation of ideas, and partnership working - the key to progress - would be made difficult if not impossible.

The present indirectly-elected regional assemblies, which are voluntary partnership bodies, were set up under the 1998 Regional Development Agencies Act. Until that Act is repealed or amended - for which J Routledge is perfectly entitled to lobby - they will remain in place. - Coun Chris Foote-Wood, Assembly Vice Chair & LibDem Group Leader.

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

THE shooting of the policewoman in Bradford has brought the question of capital punishment once again into the public arena.

There is no doubt the perpetrators of the most dastardly crimes deserve to forfeit their miserable lives.

However, what prevents me from advocating the return of the death penalty is the awful possibility that an innocent person may be put to death - imagine the torment of the condemned person.

Fortunately, the return of the ultimate punishment is very unlikely indeed. What can be done, I hear you say, to redress the balance in favour of the law abiding citizen?

Some of the sentences handed down today would be laughable were they not so tragic, especially for the victims.

Judges and magistrates must be made aware of the public disquiet, even anger, at the leniency shown to some criminals and the Home Secretary has it in his power to enforce his demands.

Violent crimes will only diminish when the punishment is made to fit the crime, otherwise the citizen will, as in the USA, demand the means to protect themselves. - Hugh Pender, Darlington.

CULTURAL IDENTITY

HAVING attended the meeting at Wear Valley District Council regarding the Cross of St George and the EU flag, I listened in dismay at the councillors who spoke - they would have disgraced any pub debate at 11pm.

I therefore welcome wholeheartedly the recent comments by Dr John Sentamu, Archbishop of York, who called for the English to rediscover their cultural identity.

He also said that the failure of England to rediscover its culture afresh would lead only to greater political extremism. The last comment is of extreme importance.

Political correctness aside, it has taken the bravery of a black man, a minister of God no less, a man that fled Idi Amin's Ugandan regime, a man that formed his identity far from these shores, to recognise the strength of culture that should be on offer in England.

The overwhelming majority of British people, of which the English form the majority, are fair-minded, abide by the rule of law, peaceful and welcome other cultures. However, awaken her at your peril.

Wear Valley councillors should think hard before removing the English flag for the EU flag. The EU represents everything that is alien to the democracy our forefathers fought and died for. - Jim Tague, Bishop Auckland Conservatives

DRIVING ADVICE

HERE we are again with bad weather conditions prevailing and a lot of new drivers about to learn the do's and dont's.

The so-called white frost is very apparent with a white windscreen. The black frost is not so obvious with its frozen water from maybe a recent shower.

The bottom of a hill or crossing a valley with a water course make the frost more pronounced with fog a possibility.

More time must be given for each journey, particularly early morning. A labouring effect must be given to the engine and the fuel pedal as high as possible in each gear.

An on-off to the brake pedal will stop any lock up of a wheel and help your intended direction. A sudden snatch of the steering is to be avoided.

Hard packed snow is not, I find, so hazardous and brings false confidence. It only takes a temperature drop, some slush, some water and probably some rutted hard packed ice from previous falls to make it just as dangerous. - RW Dunn, Trimdon Village.

PRICE OF FREEDOM

IT was with a mixture of horror and shock that I listened to the unofficial mouthpiece of the US government justify the bombing of a TV station and the killing of professional journalists on the grounds that they were "enemies of freedom".

Whether it is true or not that Tony Blair succeeded in blocking George Bush's intentions will, perhaps, come out at the forthcoming Official Secrets trial.

What is now clear is that the great American people, who cherish freedom of expression above any other nation, are led by a man who is prepared to kill journalists because he does not like the news stories that they tell.

George Orwell's nightmare vision of the state crushing innocent people has come true but with the twist that it is the country that was born through fighting against tyranny that is guilty.

All the "accidental" deaths of journalists at the hands of the US military take on a new and frightening significance.

As the key accomplice of George Bush, I am afraid that Tony Blair will be remembered in history, not for any positive contribution to "modernising" Britain, but by his hands being steeped in the blood of innocents.

The lists of the killed and maimed keeps growing remorselessly.

Some families will be affected by bad news from Iraq this Christmas. Who, but them, will care in a few years time when Tony Blair will be in his very comfortable retirement writing his lucrative memoirs of how he fought "terrorism" with his friend George. - Stuart Hill, Darlington.