SHAUN Woodward, Labour candidate for St Helens South has been staying at the Raven Lodge Hotel.

He'd do well to pay heed to a chapter in its history.

In 1819 the Raven was the base for the town's two magistrates and also housed the local lock-up. It was in February that year that St Helens colliers went on strike to protest at cuts in wages -- the first time they had taken such a step. They had formed themselves into societies for the purpose of obtaining a rise, the beginnings of a trade union movement.

When their secretary was arrested 'for administering unlawful oaths' and confined in the lock-up, hundreds of colliers assembled at the Raven, and the magistrates feared that they would try to rescue him.

He was spirited away in a chase to a Liverpool jail. There was so much anger among the colliers that troops had to be called in from Liverpool and Warrington.

Miners have long memories, and leopards do not change their spots.

I was reared on a diet of Labour principles. My maternal uncle, Councillor Michael Ledwith, was the miners' union leader. When he died, 2,000 miners walked in his funeral procession. My father was also a Labour councillor. If they were alive today, they'd want to know what kind of Labour Party we had.

Kevin Heneghan, North Road, St Helens.