This could start with reforms to the local government finance system aimed at allowing councils to raise more than half of their revenue locally from a wider range of sources. The debate about localism is more a question of who has what role. Local democracy means local electors being required to hold their councillors to account – not Whitehall.To achieve this, as Richards says, requires ministers to let go. In particular, he demolishes the notion that those of us who campaign for more powers for local government are somehow “soft” on poorly run councils The reality is quite the opposite. Although many dedicated people work hard, the problems are still extreme.I worked in a township school in South Africa last year, and there is still limited knowledge of the disease and wild myths are believed, the most horrifying being “sex with a virgin cures HIV/Aids” (40 per cent of the 15-year-olds at the school thought this was true in a quiz). HIV/Aids is now embedded as the root problem in much of sub-saharan Africa and until the situation is controlled with a large, co- ordinated, global strategy for educating the populations and supplying drugs and research, there is little chance for improvement.This particular “war” needs more soldiers and some much needed funds from money spent on that other “war”.RUSSELL BENSON Manchester Student Stop Aids Society Manchester Local democracy Sir: Steve Richards should be commended for his cogent understanding of the essence of local democracy (22 February).

Those of us working to deliver this care regret that in the years between these tragic incidents, it is your newspaper, and not community care, that has failed keep abreast of change.Dr MARK SALTERDr TREVOR TURNER Consultant Psychiatrists Homerton Hospital London E9 Aids in South Africa Sir: If premature deaths from Aids are an index of development, the statistics from South Africa (report, 23 February), where in the past five years the rate has risen by 57 per cent, highlights the failures of the world to help less developed countries slow down a pandemic that is over 20 years old. Does Ariel Sharon really want a viable Palestinian state, or merely a more secure Israel? None of these questions will be resolved in London this week, but this conference provides another welcome opportunity for the world to nudge things in the right direction.. “And the winner is …” They’ll be having one hell of a party at the Sage, Gateshead next Saturday, as Tinariwen belt out their electrified desert blues, Amparanoia administer their blast of club-flamenco, Clotaire K delivers his Mediterranean brand of hip-hop, and sundry other luminaries from the 2005 Radio 3 world music awards do their ceremonial lap of honour. What form these apparitions might take isn’t made clear, although from recent history we know that the mind of a Home Secretary is often a dark and fearful place, full of demons and echoing with the whispers of spooks.Should I be more worried that he is trying to force the identity card upon me, or that he would employ this ouija-board justice to confiscate it?DAMIEN BOVE Barnet, Hertfordshire Community care Sir: Your emotive headline (26 February) asks “is there still such a thing as care in the community?” and reiterates similarly histrionic headlines over the years.

Similar proposals, however, have already passed through the Commons in the Identity Cards Bill, seemingly without comment.In that Bill an identity card may be cancelled or be required to be surrendered “if it appears to the Secretary of State that…” and so on. But it seems there were no captains, no lieutenants or second-lieutenants, not even any warrant officers – just corporals and lance-corporals. What has happened to the maxim that there are no bad men, only bad officers?And how about the Chief of the General Staff himself – the party-going chappie who “runs the Army”? If he runs it, shouldn’t he know what it is doing? He cannot pass the buck.RICHARD LUKER Basingstoke, HampshireSir: As all of us who have served in HM forces know, discipline and morale derive from the highest level. Like many others, Northumberland LEA has scrapped its special needs provision for all but a handful of pupils. They will be passed from school to school, then will ultimately drop out of the system, into the street culture of drugs, alcohol and petty criminality.There are now no special schools where they will get the level of tailored “one-to-one” support and counselling they need.