HOWEVER unedifying your readers might find the slanging match between the respective leaders of Lancashire County Council and Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council over Queen's Park Technology College, they really do not need to work out who is actually guilty of that school's appalling record.

Both authorities are Labour controlled, as is the government - the same government whose main manifesto plank in 1997 was "Education, education and education".

The trouble is the electorate in Blackburn, although giving Labour a jolt in May, nevertheless returned the Labour Party to power, albeit with the aid of some last minute switches.

One hopes that in the forthcoming general election it will take the opportunity to help rid the country of Tony Blair and Co and thus improve education.

KEITH REYNOLDS, Wyre Crescent, Darwen.