May 22, 2006

Fluor is expected to bid for contracts if Britain decides to invest in a new generation of nuclear power stations.

Fluor executives and Government ministers, including Mr Miliband and Prime Minister Tony Blair, have already been brought together by Mr Donnelly's lobby company, Sovereign Strategy, at the North-East Economic Forum which Sovereign organised at Hardwick Hall, Sedgefield, last year.

I wonder how many of the contracts for a new nuclear industry in Britain will go to US companies.

I am left wondering how much the apparent sudden conversion of Mr Blair to the nuclear fuel option has to do with his close relationship with the US government and, through it, US big business.

Are we to trust our Government's thrust towards renewed reliance on nuclear energy? - Ivor Evans, Darlington.

ANIMAL TESTING

LABOUR'S manifesto in 1997 promised a review into animal testing for medical research. Not only has that pledge being broken, the number of animals used has increased.

Drug companies are in it for profit. They are worth zillions. If profits don't matter to them, why don't they give life-saving drugs to third world countries whose children are dying every day because they cannot afford medicine?

I do not agree with violence to achieve one's goal, but when a government ignores all attempts at peaceful methods and refuses to listen to anything ordinary people like me have to say, I fully understand why frustration leads to direct action.

I have always supported the Prime Minister and think he has done a good job, especially with Northern Ireland, but I am incensed he has backed animal testing and signed the online petition.

It's a big kick in the teeth for the Dr Hadwen Trust and the Humane Society. Both have developed methods without using animals with fantastic results in breast cancer, skin culture and eye problems to name three.

They deserve to receive state funding. Please look at their websites.

I took part in a march against animal testing in London before Labour came to power. There were thousands and thousands of people there.

I am requesting the Government please debate the matter in Parliament after consulting experts on both sides. - M Embling, Crook.

POST OFFICES

I WHOLE-HEARTEDLY support Dari Taylor, the MP for Stockton, and the Middlesbrough and Cleveland Branch of the National Federation of Subpostmasters in their campaign to keep post offices open (Echo, May 13).

There are going to be virtually no post offices in a few years time. These are the vines of the main branch upon which many people are totally reliant in getting their monies.

Our nearest post office is Cockton Hill and they are extremely pleasant and helpful advising you.

Post offices are strategically positioned so that the elderly or disabled have good access to them. Banks are all put together in the centre of a town or city and lots are being closed down. - David Johnson, Bishop Auckland .

PERSPECTIVE

IT'S to be hoped the Boro fan seen weeping on the front page (Echo, May 11) realises how lucky he is after seeing the photos of the two thugs guilty of murdering innocent 11-year-old Dean Pike in Sunderland.

The killers torched the wrong house, and Dean was inside.

The Middlesbrough fans have had plenty to rejoice about.

Their team excelled beyond all expectations in reaching such a prestigious final.

In his book, Jimmy Greaves tells how glad he was that he played when football was still just a game, when competing teams played all out attacking football that entertained the crowds to such an extent that they all left the grounds full of humour and with smiling faces, no matter whether their team won or lost.

Sadly today winning is the name of the game and the anguish on their faces says it all. - Douglas Punchard, Kirkbymoorside.

REGIONAL GOVERNMENT

IT is my understanding that Councillor Chris Foote Wood was democratically elected to represent the people in his ward of Wear Valley District Council.

I am not aware that he was also elected to act as the official representative for the whole of the North-East to advise a Government committee on aspects of regional government (HAS, May 17).

I did not know that we had regional government as such.

So surely he is exceeding his mandate. Could he please explain to the rest of us why the present 100 unelected quangos are profoundly undemocratic while the equally unelected North East Regional Assembly is democratic? - J Routledge, Witton Gilbert.

ASYLUM SEEKERS

LAST Thursday, every national newspaper expressed outrage that a gang of Afghan refugees were allowed to remain in Britain after arriving here as armed hijackers.

It was perhaps therefore inevitable that your columnist Helen Cannam was, on that same day, bleating about the unfair attitude taken to asylum seekers by society in general and the BNP in particular.

Perhaps Ms Cannam does indeed know of a few deserving asylum cases.

Yet one wonders how many alleged asylum seekers are mere trouble stirrers, who have made their own countries too hot to hold them.

A recent upsurge in sex-slave trafficking and brothel keeping seems to be traceable to recent dubious immigrants from Eastern Europe. Smug, smirking lawyers brazenly tell the British public that the law is our master - not our servant - and that we have no rights to repatriate unwanted immigrants, even rapists and murderers.

I myself know precious little of the aims of the BNP.

However, could I suggest that they may represent the response of market forces to the situation where Blair's Britain is globally perceived as a soft touch for anybody with a hard luck story to tell.

Real socialists like Ms Cannam stubbornly refuse to recognise that market forces exist. This is why they invariable make a mess whenever they meddle in important issues. - David E Sparks, Hartlepool.

PETROL PRICES

IS there some sort of cartel running between the petrol stations in the Consett area?

The price of unleaded petrol in Consett at the moment is 97.9p or 98.9p depending on where you get it. Yet you can get petrol as much as six pence a litre cheaper in Sunderland. Are the Consett people being held to ransom?

No doubt the garages' excuse will be transport costs or the like but nevertheless six pence is a big drop. - GM Agnew, Consett.