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YOUR SAY

Welcome to the PM letters page.

Why not have your say on the issues raised by the programme - use the form at the bottom of this page - or e-mail us at [email protected].

WorldCom and corporate fraud
Bush moves to bury Arafat
Lamenting England's defeat
A snoopers' charter?
Your emails on other issues

WorldCom and corporate fraud

Worldcom deserve everything they get. As an independent IT professional I have had extensive dealings with Worldcom and their customer service is truly appalling; over-greedy expansion has lead to a sorry catalogue of buck-passing, missed deadlines and breathtaking incompetence. What goes around, comes around.
Peter McGurk

So, a commercial firm is in trouble for creative accounting when it comes to announcing profits. Thank goodness that sort of creative accounting doesn't happen when the Government announces spending plans. Or does it?
Brian Stoner

You rightly join the rest of the media in reporting the accounting scam of the American company 'World Com', but to get corporate corruption in perspective. I rarely hear of the continuing scandal involving European Union corporate corruption whereby between �5 and �6 Billion EVERY YEAR goes missing. So much so that the EU Court of Auditors regularly refuses to pass EU Accounts! Furthermore this has been going on since 1994. We know it is hard for the BBC to report EU corruption, but it is a reality and it is high time you stopped your highly selective reporting on these matters.
Graham Wood

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Bush declares Arafat must go

I agree that the Palestinians should have a democratically elected leader. They have one, committed to peace at great personal risk - Yasser Arafat.
Pavel Navorak

Whatever you may think about Arafat let us remember that when Sharon was in charge of the army before he was prime minister, he was complicit in a particularly vicious attack on a Palestinian refugee camp when hundreds were killed. That he was elected leader of Israel was hypocritical enough and the fact that the peace process is so far away is also due to his hardline attitude.
Kath Morrell

The Palestinian-Israeli conflict is not about Yaser Arafat. It has started long before Arafat was born. To consolidate the problem with Yaser Arafat does not solve anything.

The main cause of the problem is the Israeli occupation to Palestinian territories. As long the occupation remains, violence will continue. It is a simple formula. Ariel Sharon is not a man of peace. He is responsible for Palestinian massacres, he has never recognised the Oslo agreement, he has never participated in any peace negotiations. As a matter of fact his controversial visit to the al Aqsa mosque is what sparked the new Intifada.

Would President Bush dare to suggest that the Israeli leadership should be changed?
Bashar Muhtadi

Re: President Bush's comments regarding Yasser Arafat. None of your mailbag appears to be in support of President Bush's views. I would like to add my comments to this discussion in an attempt to redress the balance. If the Israeli government had had the same prime minister for 30 years I feel sure that world opinion would be requesting a change as the incumbent had not secured a mutually acceptable peace settlement in this time. It therefore seems to me an acceptable statement for President Bush to make. This request does not infringe the Palestinian's democratic rights it suggests that Yasser Arafat should not stand for re-election.
Tom Malcolm

Bush and his administration came to power after a campaign bankrolled in part by corrupt big business and decided by sharp practice in the voting system. How dare they lecture other nations on how to implement democracy?
Peter Turnbull

As Sharon holds Arafat responsible for suicide bomber atrocities, he must accept his own responsibility for today's palestine market "Turkey shoot" with tank shells & machine guns. Occupied areas are, in effect, concentration camps.
A.Blay, UK

It has become a journalistic commonplace to describe Palestinian civilians killed by Israeli troops as having died in "clashes". The use of this term in today's headlines is, however, a particularly shocking example of this often dishonest and misleading approach. There was no suggestion in the follow-up report that any such "clash" took place. Even the Israeli army has not claimed that they were attacked by the now dead children, nor by anyone with them in the crowd that was fired on by Israeli tanks, and has admitted to a mistake.
Richard Nelson, Buckingham, UK

It strikes me that we should not be supporting an Israeli regime which is so riddled with corruption and dishonesty and in view of Sharon's reputation as a liar should be demanding proof of the allegations he makes and the claims from Israeli spokespersons that, for example, Arafat was responsible for the breakdown of the last peace talks.

Our government talks of being tough on countries which flout international rules on asylum seekers/economic migrants - is there not a far better case for it to be tough on a country which continues to flout UN resolutions and commits daily abuses of human rights?
Paul Carline, UK

We must all condemn all suicide bombing and grieve deeply with those who mourn the victims, but this should not prevent us from applauding Mrs Blair's honesty in acknowledging and recognising the pain and frustration felt by those young Palestinians who can see no other way out of the persecution, including murders and the theft of their land, from which they have suffered all their lives. Bravo Mrs Blair!
Robert Thompson, France

Aren't both Americans and Israelis guilty of blinkered hindsight? The Israeli state was founded by terror in the 1940s: one of the worst terrorist attacks ever in the region was the attack on the King David hotel in Jerusalem by a Jewish terrorist group led by Menahim Beghin. Its 92 killed and hundreds wounded are far worse than anything the Palestinians manage. This and many similar attacks were instrumental in persuading the British to get out and let the Jews found their state. Why can't modern day Israel understand the Palestinians are using the methods they used themselves to get their own state?
John Vernon, Epinay sur Orge, France

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Lamenting England's defeat

Where was he when we needed him - why wasn't Tony Blair in goal?
Brian Christley, Conwy

Commiserations to the team. You are out of the cup, but we are pleased with you anyway. We were really impressed by your fantastic attitude. Many thanks for all the good feelings you brought us.
John McCormack, Whitehaven

It was cruel and inept of you to headline tonight's programme with England's "goalkeeping blunder". It is dificult to imagine anyone being able to save what was either a freakish or brilliant free-kick.
Christopher Morley, Halesowen

Why do you have to so irresponsibly single out a single player in your reporting of England's exit from the World Cup. The fact is that England weren't good enough on the day and were beaten by the better team. You don't always have to pick a 'fall guy' to justify the result when it goes wrong.

You and the rest of your colleagues in the media have succeeded in personalising a non event by your 'spin' when the real story is that Brazil played better, scored more goals than England and justify their position as favourites to win the World Cup.
Fiona Cohn, UK

Is there nothing that Blair won't put his sticky fingers all over? Any time there's anything that might be seen by more than three members of the public, it will immediately be pounced upon by our populist PM, in the hope of raising the public's awareness of his existence... Are we to believe that Blair is so football mad that he will ring the manager of our country's accursed football team just to congratulate him on losing? Speaking as someone who absolutely detests the "beautiful game" with all of my being, if he truly is so obsessed with that mindless sport, the case for his removal from power is all the more strong...

PS. PLEASE stop talking about football, I can't bear any more. I WILL GIVE YOU MONEY!!!!
Nimrod F. Soames, esq.

It seems that Tony Blair only has to make a comment about England's defeat in the football world cup, for one of your correspondents on Friday to accuse him of "spin". There seems to be a whole army of Daily Mail cheerleaders out there who get great delight from yelling "spin!" whenever the Prime Minister says anything. If he kept silent, no doubt they would accuse him of hiding something.
Alan Pavelin, Chislehurst

All too quickly England's World Cup hopes have been dashed, far too quickly for me to actually find one of those cheap pints that nice Mr Brown promised me. Perhaps the news will now contain something other than football, and one of your correspondents will get round to asking where was all this cheap beer "in time for the World Cup?"
Tara Smith, Rotherham

Last Friday's post match comments from the England Team coach were just unbelievable! 'The players were tired'; 'they play too much football... 'they need a rest'..... etc etc. The poor things - on their wages of (commonly) several thousand pounds a day they cannot afford to be tired; but if they are are, or are playing too much, then replace them and cut their ridiculous salaries.
David Hutchins, Sevenoaks

Am I the only person in the country who thinks we have actually been let down by our football team. We have seen two half decent performances and the rest were quite frankly pathetic. This squad and their manager seem to have been more interested in getting their photos taken and generally milking the occasion for their own bank accounts than showing the pride and commitment in wearing an England shirt and giving their all.
Stephen Boll, Durham UK

Question - How strange is it that there is a possible case of foot & mouth reported at the end of last week? Answer - Not very.

I visited the DEFRA stand at the South of England Agricultural Show to enquire what bio-security was in place at the ports & airports for the returning football fans as there is a major outbreak of foot & mouth in Korea. I was informed that DEFRA were not responsible for this, it was Customs & Excise responsibility and their budget would not cover it. Farmers in this country are being forced out of business by regulations which ensure that they cannot compete fairly with the rest of the world markets and this government yet again has no intention of protecting our livestock and the people who nurture them from the horror which we all so vividly remember from just a few months ago.
G Sillars, Kent

PM running order tonight 21/6 1 England lose some football match
2 Four palestinians die, three of them children under 11 gunned down in Jenin - even the Israelis admit this as a mistake.
3 Six Britons injured in car bomb attack at a popular Spanish holiday resort.
Perhaps Radio Four would like to get things in some sort of perspective - or would the PM editor care to explain how a football match is more important than the death of their child aged 5 or 6 to the Palestinian parent?

To paraphrase Bill Shankly, There are matters of life and death, but football isn't one of them.
Alicia Andrews, Reading

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A snoopers' charter?

Mr. Blunket and New Labour have seen the error of their ways regarding their snoopers charter? What a shame. I was sure their arrogance would lead them to try to force it through. This would have caused an unholy row and rightly so. The sleeping giant that is the British public would have woken up and kicked Labour senseless.
Jeremy Malcolm

If government departments are to have access to our emails & phone calls, should not we, the public, have like access to ministerial phone calls, emails & so on ? (Think of all the spin that would save us - its enough to make a person giddy.....)
June-Marie Courage, Surrey

At 53 years of age I feel sad that this country is now being undermined by a dictatorship in power. Laws are churned out every day changing our lives and the great British public fails to see that we are becoming a supervised not by the 'nanny' state - more like a KGB state. The latest move to allow departments access to people's personal data and movements in this 'free' country. What hair-brained politician thought of this one?

I have already had to pay twice to be registered with the Criminal Records Bureau so that I can sign official applications to scrutinise our staff criminal records if any. The second cost was to satisfy the Care Standards Commission, who, incidentally, have not received any directive from the government (D.o.H) as to what they are supposed to be doing yet !! I told them that I had paid �300 to the C.R.B. to register and have to pay a further �12 to register for the same scrutiny on myself to them. It's like being scanned in duplicate!
Ian Litherland, Manchester

Government ministers are always telling us of the difficult decisions they have to make, when will they realise it isn't making ill-conceived decisions that is difficult it is implementing them.
Brian Christley, Conwy

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Other issues

POOR OLD KEN

Ken Livingstone's accuser has been very happy to go to the Press, but he has twice refused to press charges. If he is not willing to go to court, then one can only conclude that he is less aggrieved than malicious.
Dr. Farah Mendlesohn

ABORTION

I heard the piece about people posting photos of ladies going into abortion clinics in the US, have these people thought that maybe some of these ladies have been raped or are carrying a sick or malformed baby and the operation is for the mothers health. how dare these people make themselves the spokespeople for other women's problems, it must be upsetting enough without having your tear stained face appearing on a web site compiled by people who do not have the slightest idea of your circumstances or situation.
Paul Middleton

TRADE UNIONS

Talk about double standards, Bob Crow and his friends are the first make much noise about big business buying favours from the government yet makes it very clear that unions have the right to. Hypocrisy, thy name is the British trade union movement. I am appalled at the influence of big business which blatantly buys influence with this administration but I am equally appalling the the trade unions doing the same thing.
Mr P.L. Gurney

WIMBLEDON

It has always intrigued me that if the forces are as stretched as we are told, that there is a small task force in reserve at Wimbledon that could be used. Is this practice a perk for the forces, or are the organisers just getting security on the cheap?
Peter Edwards

During his interrogation of tennis player Kournikova, BBC TV's Gary Richardson asserted she had lost her confidence, she gently pointed out that only she knew if her confidence was low. He went on to suggest she should play in a lower grade of tennis or perhaps retire altogether ! When she asked for the interview to start afresh the BBC agreed but were careful to show the whole thing. Pundits LLoyd & Shriver criticised Kournikova, but they would have protested long & loud at the three insults if they had been treated this way during their playing days.
Mr P Brown, St Albans

EU SUMMIT

What a pity that Peter Hain was not in charge of the commentary of the England Brazil match the other day. After listening to him describing the latest EU stitch up at the Seville Summit as a major victory, I can't help thinking that his verdict on the match would have given England a comprehensive victory. I have little doubt that one of his spin doctors could even have dreamed up a plausible explanation as to why the team arrived at Heathrow 36 hours later.
John Wilson, Preston, Lancashire

I am a regular writer to the media and one thing has become apparent to me. If you write in denigrating the government for health or education, your letter stands a good chance of success; if you praise the governement for low unemployment, inflation and interest rates ... your letter goes straight in the bin!
Henry Page, East Sussex

TORIES

Five years in crushing opposition and the Tories stil need to get their policies across. Voters will recognise delivery of ideas from evidence of a lack of personal attacks and media manipulation. But is the Tory Party actually capable of doing what the voters expect?
Henry Page, East Sussex

SPECIAL NEEDS

I listened with interest to your piece on Children with Special Educational Needs. My son is at present going through formal assessment which I had to fight for. Even if he does get a statement it will make no difference because the money schools get for children with special needs is part of the main budget which department heads all have to fight for. The education system will do nothing for my son. It worries me because he will be starting senior school in September.
Peta Free, Teignmouth, Devon

Two magistrates have told me recently that the present system amounts to a gravy train for the lawyers who usually charge their fees on a time basis. No wonder the legal profession is against the Home Secretary's recent proposals for reform.
Clifford Mullett, Essex

I was heartened to hear the chorus of disapproval from fellow listeners about your over-coverage of the Blair-Black Rod affair. But that's just the tip of the iceberg. Charles Clark is WRONG when he says that journalists are pious and hypocritical. But you are lazy and trivial.

Surely, it's your job to get PAST the spin - not talk ABOUT it. You're like footballers complaining that there's a goalie in the way of the ball! So please could you start could talking about real things and have an embargo on 'spin whingeing' for a year or two.
Martin Jameson, Stockport