AS AN employee of a safety critical industry (the railways) I am not in the bait of muddled thinking or inclined not to step into the real world, as my detractors said in Citizen last week.

If I was guilty of the former I could kill many people by a simple mistake and of the latter I would not be much good as area safety council secretary for rural maintenace in North West England.

I do not withdraw any allegations against the 'New Labour' cuckoos in the Labour Party nest. And what makes me even more determined is the knowledge that people like Cllrs David Whittaker and Sheila Den-wood are basically decent individuals who are probably being forced to toe a party line they know to be wrong.

I am fully aware of the low pay legislation brought in by Blair. However, Alan Johnson MP, former Labour Minister for the minimum wage before being promoted, wrote that it is not intended to provide a guaranteed adequate standard of living. Bearing in mind that MPs are on £1,060 a week, it stinks.

The mysterious 'Socialist', who wrote last week, did touch on one key factor - the fact that the means of effectively enforcing most new legislation is lacking, notably in the areas of safety and race law.

The fact is that no amount of 'spin' and disparagement of we critics from the left will save the electoral bacon of Blair and his followers.

The disgraceful performance in backing blatant illegal imperialist aggression in the Balkans, Palestine, the Caucasus, Colombia and now Iraq has begun the political exposure of New Labour.

Pandering to the basest prejudices with the current anti-social behaviour moves will only alienate even further the working class core vote and play into the cynical hands of the Tories.

Steve Metcalfe, Palatine Avenue, Lancaster.