I DON'T think the public will swallow Councillor Renee Greaves' praise for the Tories achievements (Letters, September 23), especially on income tax.

In 1979, the top rate of tax came down by as much as 47p in the pound; the standard rate was reduced from 33 per cent to 30 per cent.

But extra petrol duty, a rise of seven per cent in VAT and interest rates increased to record levels wiped out any rejoicing at the bottom end.

Now, with 22 new Tory taxes (VAT on fuel, National Insurance, etc) the standard taxpayer is worse off now, than in 1979.

Coun Greaves failed to mention the greatest incidence of forced evictions in history - 300,000 repossessions, in the last five years; 1,000 per week.

Some 14.5 million adults and children now live in households whose net incomes are half the national average.

There are 250,000 families with mortgages more than three months in arrears, while, at the other end, we see that last year 25 per cent of the population owned 72 per cent of the marketable wealth.

A SMETTEM, Hapton Road, Padiham.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.