MICROCHIPS

RE identity cards. Why waste millions talking about it? Why can't they microchip all babies, like cats and dogs?

If the existing microchips aren't any good on humans why haven't they got round to inventing some that are?

First, they can't be lost and would be useful in disasters of any sort.

Second, all people that appear at court for any reason could be chipped there and then.

Then everyone who goes abroad on holiday can pay extra to be chipped.

The few people left could be chipped in age groups free, like flu injections. Only those who can't wait should pay.

Surely this way it could be done cheaply and thoroughly and details could be entered in a book.

None of us has any secrets left now, so why worry? At least our bank details should be safe. - D Russell, Northallerton.

FREE SPEECH

IN a free and democratic society anyone with an opinion to put forward should be allowed to do so, including Prince Charles or any of the Royals, come to that.

That Cromwellian gag nonsense has no place in this day and age. People all over the world have died in their millions to uphold the right to speak up and have their opinions heard.

Those who bring in measures to suppress free speech seem not to have any idea of the sacrifices made to uphold this right. Making laws to suppress it is easy, putting one's life on the line to uphold it is hard and unpleasant. - GH Grieveson, Richmond.

UNANSWERED QUESTIONS

I FIND it somewhat ironic that we should be accused by the chief constables and police authority chairs in Northumbria and Durham (HAS, Mar 3) of using rhetoric and being too political when, in reality, it is our authority which has been consistently raising specific concerns and asking specific questions many of which remain unanswered.

I want to put the record straight on their charge that our decision not to volunteer for merger has denied the region many millions of Government funding.

The Home Office's own consultants have estimated the set-up costs for a North-East regional force at £36m and against that the Home Office agreed to make £16m available whether or not authorities volunteer for merger, so to suggest that money is at risk is simply not true.

In relation to the £16m, the Home Office has stated that 60 per cent of that would be top sliced from money already included in funding plans.

It should also be pointed out that work by directors of finance within the three forces suggests that, if the analysis by the Home Office consultants on the level of savings to be made on staff proves not to be deliverable, there is a potential additional cost risk of £9.7m.

Also the Home Office confirmed only days before the deadline set for authorities to make their decisions that they would not make any financial commitment to dealing with the issue of the widely varying council tax precept levels across the region and how those could be reconciled

It is true that the Home Office did indicate that if the North-East was prepared to become what it described as a pathfinder, it would offer about £4m, as what it called development funding.

We did not believe that a £4m sweetener was justification for taking a leap in the dark. If others took a different view, that is matter for them.

I could not agree more with the view expressed by Durham and Northumbria that the debate should focus on how we can improve policing services, but that means asking questions and getting answers. - Councillor Dave McLuckie, Chair, Cleveland Police Authority.

SINGLE MOTHERS

EVERYONE is upset at the rises in fuel bills.

That's understandable - but now a single mother has decided that she and all others like her should have £200 'cold weather' payment just like the pensioners.

Statistics show the majority of these women do not have to be single mothers, unlike the pensioners where there is no option to old age and who are receiving back what they have worked and paid for.

It seems to be the accepted thing these days for single women to go on producing children and feel that it is then the duty of the taxpayer to provide for their every need, while the absent father goes on to provide more offspring for the taxpayer to keep.

It is the duty of the father to provide for his children's needs, absent or not, and whether he likes it or not.

These women should be taught a lesson we older ones were taught when young. If you can't afford it, don't get it. - Margaret Zanir, Spennymoor.

GREATEST INEQUALITIES

THE greatest inequalities between men and women are: an average man retires five years later than women and dies five years earlier.

Women have health screening, such as the national programmes for cancers.

Men are ignored until they keel over and die.

I'm all in favour of equality between the sexes. So I want my pension at 60 and massive male health programmes.

Am I likely to get them? Probably over my dead body. - Robin Ashby, Gosforth.

SMOKING BAN

I AM dismayed by the complacency of the tobacco companies, club and pub licensees and even shopkeepers in not lobbying Parliament in an effort to overturn or amend the smoking ban. Revenue will be lost to all concerned if the law stands as it is.

As to the health hazard: we all die of something and I admit smoking is probably a factor in some deaths at least.

What with health warnings about obesity, alcohol and smoking, as adults we all know what the next warning will be about. - George Sowerby, Bishop Auckland.

COUNCIL TAX

ONCE again there is an obsession with percentage increases in council tax, most of which are cynically just below the five per cent capping limit.

What actually matters is the amount people are required to pay.

With reference to the table for Band D properties published in The Northern Echo on March 3, some of the issues that arise and need to be explained include: why is Scarborough's rate £140 higher than York's; Hartlepool's £140 higher than Middlesbrough's; Newcastle's £150 higher than Sunderland's and, possibly worst case of all, why Sedgefield's rate is a whopping £470 more than next door neighbour Darlington's?

Perhaps the offending authorities would care to explain and justify these apparent discrepancies. - K O'Brien, Ferryhill Station.

TOWN CRIER

I COULD not agree more with the item (Echo, Mar 4) about Darlington's Town Crier.

I have never read so much fiction in my life as that. When is Darlington Council going to tell us how many supporters it has? When is it going to let others have their say?

The Labour party councillors are forgetting two things: who pays their wages and who can vote them off in 2007 when the election comes. - Stephen Beaton, Darlington.