Letter's: Your shout - VENT YOUR SPLEEN

Evening Chronicle (Newcastle, England), August 13, 2008

I'VE just received this wonderful news from Nexus regarding the taxi link service.

I am going to get my card at the value of pounds 100, which actually entitles me to one return journey a week for 20 weeks, and if I really want to go mad, I could have two journeys a week for 10 weeks.

This is also on top of the administration charges for the changes which myself and several other TaxiLink members didn't want and were not informed about. It's very kind of Nexus to keep us in the picture and to give us these lovely concessions. But once the 20 weeks is up, what happens then? Nexus hasn't informed us, but I supposed there is always the Jeremy Kyle Show and the soaps I can watch after the 20 weeks are up. Thanks very much, Nexus. DW, West Denton.

IN REPLY to A of Prudhoe, if Rover made quality cars how did they go out of business? I owned a Rover 75 and had it recalled for faulty brakes.

I also found it to be a rust bucket. I know a number of former Rover owners who would tell you the same.

As for the pit villages being cleaner, how quaint when you drive through them in your excellent Rover. What about the proud men who worked in the pits?

Now reduced to collecting supermarket trolleys or stacking shelves. Plastic jobs. The only people who gained from the Thatcher policies were the wealthy. PS, Walkerdene.

I WOULD like to know how many times you have to report a benefit cheat to the DWP. My neighbour is a single parent living on benefits.

I don't have a problem with this but her long-term partner who has a job lives with her on a regular basis. They holiday abroad, shop together, share the same car etc. Us, law-abiding citizens must be doing something wrong by going to work to pay for these people. BC, Newcastle.

A NICE surprise at Morrisons supermarket in Kiiiingworth this morning, their petrol was pounds 1.08, showing up all the greedy garages still 6p and 7p per litre dearer.

We know petrol prices have dropped but it takes the supermarkets to lead the way and provide us with a really good deal. Those garages still charging from pounds 1.12 upwards should be ashamed of themselves. AF, Throckley.

I'M NOT saying Labour is perfect but they are much better than the Tories. As a pensioner I am much better off with my winter fuel allowance, free TV licence, free bus travel, housing and council tax benefits, free prescriptions, along with free eye and dental care.

We never had these benefits when the Tories were last in government. That's why I will never ever vote Conservative. CW, Gateshead.

ACCORDING to reports your weekly shopping now has gone up pounds 27.1 think they must be talking about a family because people on the lower income and pensioners are pushed to get pounds 27 worth of groceries. AP, Washington.

AFTER the death of Oliver Cromwell it is reported that in towns and villages across England the people brought out their maypoles. These had been hidden in barns and outhouses during the years of puritan rule when dancing had been banned. They set up their maypoles in town squares and on village greens and danced around them with unbounded joy.

The restoration of the Stuarts was not widely popular but most people realised a burden had been lifted from their everyday lives. I shall be getting out my maypole when, hopefully, New Labour is defeated at the next general election. Not because I expect the Tories to usher in a golden age of peace and prosperity but because a sleazy, incompetent and unprincipled government will have been removed from power. AP, Gosforth.

As a pensioner I am much better off with winter fuel allowance, free TV licence, free bus travel, housing and council tax benefits, free prescriptions, free eye and dental care