IT was with interest that I read Bill Jacobs' article 'Alarm bells ring on union policy' (LET, March 28). I was able to reflect on the so-called trade union-dominated 1970s.

In the process of the destruction of the unions and cropping them to the levels of today, the manufacturing companies such as GEC, British Aerospace, Wright Hargreaves, Edgar Pickering, Prestige, the Royal Ordnance Factory, Mullards, etc, to name but a few, have all lost the majority of their workforces or been closed down completely, or transferred jobs to Europe.

The pendulum does not need swinging back in the favour of the unions, but essentially in favour of our manufacturing base and employment.

The result would be a renewal of purchasing in the High Street to the benefit of small businesses who are now struggling to survive (sadly, too late for those of them which have gone to the wall).

I don't think that those voters who were made to look foolish for voting Conservative, lured by the promise of lower taxation, will forgive the Government for raising income tax and the double whammy of indirect taxation rises.

G TAYLOR, Mayfield Road, Ramsgreave, Blackburn.

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