IS it not amazing how a few years can dim the memory? Albert Morris (Letters, September 11) conveniently forgets that it was the socialist predecessor of Mrs Thatcher who was virtually dragged off the plane by the Gnomes of Zurich to stop him and his party bankrupting the country.

Surely, that was the planting of the banana plantation.

Another strange claim is that in the first five years of Thatcher rule, "no one admitted to voting Conservative." Yet, in this same period, she was returned with an even greater majority.

Yet another facet of the equation which people forget is that to have a vibrant manufacturing industry, you need customers. If you can't sell the product, there is only one end.

If Britain had taken a leaf out of Japan's book and bought British, like the Japs buy Japanese, then we may have retained the manufacturing base. Yet that is only one cog in the wheel to create wealth - something Labour has never done. To be successful, the country has to sell at a profit, no matter what it is - goods, services, banking, insurance, tourism or leisure - to overseas buyers. For that is where the real wealth is generated.

But, alas, Mr Morris must live in some sort of cocoon, for has he not heard of the mass of new cars sold, houses on the move, overseas holidays galore; of how the feel-good factor is returning day by day and faster than any country in the European Union?

WALT MEADOWS, Whalley New Road, Blackburn.

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