May 16, 2006

To start with, a personal experience. After I leave home for work, the first person I usually speak to is my newsagent, a hard-working Indian immigrant. If I am peckish at the end of a night out, I sometimes buy a pizza from a takeaway run by an equally hard-working Palestinian refugee.

Indeed, from the moment we wake up to the moment we go to bed, our lives are constantly enriched by the contributions of immigrants.

Immigration has given us many institutions that seem built into our heritage: Rothschilds, Warburgs, Barings, Reuters and Cazenove in the City; Marks & Spencer and Dollond and Aitchison in the high street; Trust House Forte and Tesco.

On another level, it is hard to imagine the NHS functioning without immigration. In 2003, there were 42,000 working for it, while in 2001 there were more than 5,000 foreign doctors, one-third of all the licensed medical practitioners in the country.

I see no logical reason why anybody in this country would have any problem with immigration, unless they were being provoked by those deliberately peddling a mixture of myths, half-truths and downright lies. - Peter Sagar, Newcastle.

PUBLIC MONEY

THE primary responsibility of LibDem councillor Chris Foote Wood (HAS, May 11) is to hold to account Labour-run Wear Valley District Council - can I ask when he is to commence with such duties?

His latest and ongoing cosy relationship with Labour on the EU Committee of the Regions, as with a similar role on the discredited North-East Assembly, is further insult to the paying public, who hear nothing of his opposition to the plight of Wear Valley, floundering at the bottom of league tables, while he merrily pushes his own agenda and political career, using the public purse every step of the way.

Fine, have your own beliefs. Same, too, for Labour's Olive Brown. Just why do you insist those beliefs should be paid for by the public, especially when Wear Valley council is increasing service costs, reducing services, is propped up with massive government assistance and council tax remains high?

Indeed, since Coun Foote Wood concludes that ex-Labour leader Olive Brown initiated the EU Committee of the Regions' dinner at Auckland Castle, seemingly endorsed by Coun Foote Wood, might many folk now conclude that it looks rather coincidental that both were promoted within, or to, the EU Committee of the Regions a few weeks after the said dinner. - Jim Tague, Bishop Auckland Conservatives.

VULTURES CIRCLE

THE sad demise of UKIP as a credible, patriotic, right-thinking party continues unabated. The latest news that their leader, Roger Knapman, has employed cheap Polish labour to restore his Grade II-listed mansion in Devon shows him to be a pontificating fool who does not even follow his own party's policies.

He will be remembered as a leader who preached "Do as I say, but not as I do" for the rest of his tenure as leader. Given that he shortly faces internal leadership elections, he is not long for the party, one would assume.

This comes shortly after a momentous internal row over the expense allocations their Euro MEPs receive that were allegedly promised towards party funding, and the annihilation the UKIP took at the hands of the BNP in 26 seats in which they went face-to-face during the recent local elections.

From a position that looked so bright after the 2004 Euro elections to the 2006 collapse in party morale and membership, the vultures of David Cameron and Nick Griffin will be circling to see what meat they can get off the carcass as UKIP slowly dies. - Mark Anderson, Middleton St George, near Darlington.

CREDIT DESERVED

I HOPE many of your readers have already seen all the good work that has gone on to bring South Park, Darlington, back to A1 condition.

While the Mayor at the official opening on Sunday, May 7, mentioned a number of good people who have been involved, I would like to give credit to County Durham Foundation (the Community Foundation serving both County Durham and Darlington).

They managed to find an individual donor willing to give the initial £50,000, thus enabling the County Durham Environmental Trust and the Heritage Lottery Fund to provide the public money for the £3.9m revamp. Without private money, schemes like this may be unviable.

County Durham Foundation relies on both companies and individuals who want to return to their local area something of the benefit they have derived from that area (where their customers or workforce are largely based).

I would hope those interested in furthering the work of County Durham Foundation would contact me on (01325) 465543 or 341547. - David L Brown, Trustee, County Durham Foundation.

THE rejuvenation of South Park, Darlington, is a good decision at long last. It's just a shame that the "ring road" cuts the park off from the town centre, otherwise town centre workers and shopping visitors could also use the park.

Perhaps we could have a shuttle bus during the summer from the town centre to the park. Better still, how great the link could have been via a boat shuttle from Stone Bridge to the park - great fun.

If the money Darlington Borough Council spent on the supposed pedestrianisation scheme and the destruction of High Row had been incorporated in such an idea it might have been possible.

Most residents of Darlington don't even realise we have a river flowing through the town centre - blame the positioning of the ring road once again cutting the town off from the Civic Theatre as well as the park. - Pauline Rees, Darlington.

EXTREMISM CONDEMNED

FOLLOWING last week's focus on animal rights extremism the RSPCA would like to make clear that it condemns the actions of those who took part in intimidation and violence in the name of bringing laboratory experiments on animals to an end.

In our view, campaigns to intimidate shareholders, or the one carried out by four guinea pig farm activists who were sentenced after admitting charges of conspiracy to blackmail, have only succeeded in damaging the animal welfare cause.

The public debate about animal testing has become nothing more than a slanging match between someone in a lab coat and someone in a balaclava. All this does is entrench views to such an extent that legitimate concerns about animal suffering and justification for individual experiments are lost.

The RSPCA is deeply concerned about the suffering of animals in experiments and believes there should be much more commitment to using humane alternatives. Until this can be achieved, the RSPCA works in a constructive way to ensure the numbers of animals used and the levels of suffering are reduced as much as possible.

This way of working delivers the animal welfare message exactly where it is needed, with most chance of it being taken up. - Alan Wolinski, RSPCA Regional Manager for the North, Leeds.