MOST of us enjoy those improbable facts that occasionally crop up; eg, if the population of China jumped into the air at the same moment the gravitational pull would move the earth off its orbit by three inches and cause tidal waves in the River Severn, etc.

Two of these types of statement have always intrigued me. Firstly, you are never more than 6ft from a rat; secondly, there is no more than six degrees’ separation between any two individuals anywhere in the world. Sadly, the rat is an urban myth and six degrees is unprovable.

However, as a recent convert to The Northern Echo and its letters and online comments, I may have uncovered a readily-provable fact.

For those who still take some pleasure in the belief that the North-East does some things better than elsewhere this fact only requires three simple steps (a 50 per cent improvement on its nearest rivals, it may be noted).

I call this theory One-Two-Three and it’s BNP, or The Triple Echo. Here’s the hypothesis; any letter – no matter the subject – will elicit no more than, and often less than three comments before the BNP is mentioned.

Brilliant. Residents of Bishop Auckland, Spennymoor and all points east have invented a new, fascist version of Mornington Crescent.

Richard Bowen, York.

I FEEL The Northern Echo has gone too far in its recent Comment column onslaught on the BNP (Echo, Oct 20 and 24).

The use of terms such as the BNP leader’s “abhorrent views”

and describing the party as “hateful racists” smacks of an attempt to browbeat, shame, perhaps even brainwash the reader.

Furthermore, where is the evidence that “the BNP is regarded by the vast majority of people as a vile organisation”?

Of course, the Echo does not have any such evidence and the statement is, therefore, disingenuous and should not have been made.

If the Echo truly believed its own propaganda, why the need for the all-out, no-holds barred assault? Indeed, why the need for the columns at all?

Let people make up their own minds from the facts, rather than be told what to think (or, in this case, what they actually do think) via a one-sided tirade.

After all, and contrary to the apparent belief of many commentators and HAS correspondents (“I abhor their disgusting racist views, but…”), it is not an offence to fail to condemn the BNP – not yet, anyway.

K O’Brien, Ferryhill Station, Co Durham.