COUN Jack Tarbuck's saloon bar politics (Letters, March 11) shows the desperation and low morale of the evaporating Tory group on Blackburn Council. His letter contains some glaring omissions on the Education debate at the council meeting on February 22:

The Labour group resolution on education was wide-ranging and contained eight important policy issues. The Tory group 'policy' amounted to two paragraphs!

Labours' proposals were concerned with the educational needs of thousands of children who live in the borough. The Tories' resolution was concerned with three children who don't live in the borough.

The mindless Tory logic, as disclosed by Coun Tarbuck, means that those of us who believe that all the dentists should return to the NHS must suffer with toothache rather than go for private extraction.

Similarly, those of us who believe the public utilities should be returned to public control should deny ourselves and our families water, gas and electricity.

We have had 17 years of successive Tory governments, destroying everything that is decent and worthwhile for the majority of working people - investing in greed and self-interest while deceiving parliament and the nation.

The Tory party locally mirrors its national counterparts - devoid of policies, principles and concern for the welfare of the people of the borough.

We will be able to measure the strength and spirit of the dispirited local Tory Party by how many seats and candidates they have the courage to put up in the May elections.

COUN DON RISHTON, chair, Lancashire South European Constituency Labour Party, Livesey Branch Road, Blackburn.

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