THE past fortnight has seen a wave of job losses announced across East Lancashire that rings the loudest of alarm bells.

When workers are shed in large numbers by big name, high skill, manufacturing companies like Philips, BAE Systems, and Rolls-Royce it is no exaggeration to say our economic life blood is draining away.

On top of this we have white collar redundancies at Airtours and job losses at the Network 65 business park in Hapton - a venture much praised for creating new jobs to replace those lost in dying industries.

Another nail in the coffin is the transfer of 300 jobs from Altham across the border to Bradford where Hallmark apparently have a better site on which to expand.

Today, as yet more job losses are revealed, we read the real concern of our MPs who put forward differing views and points of emphasis about what they think should be done to halt the decline.

Janet Anderson, for example, cites the need for us to become a sub region, Greg Pope spotlights higher education, Peter Pike wants more government money and Nigel Evans talks about less red tape and taxation.

There is also the welcome news that the North West Aerospace Alliance is working on its own five-point plan with the support of the North West Development Agency to try to preserve local jobs.

This range of suggestions is fine but what is really needed is for politicians to get together to produce a single, precise, detailed, step-by-step blueprint to end this crisis.

Action, not words, is needed now.

We are not panicking. We are reacting to a situation where East Lancashire's economy is bleeding to death.