WALT Meadows (Letters, April 27) says the country will not be laughing long if the Labour Party wins the General Election.

But has this country had anything to laugh at over the 17 years of Conservative government?

In fact, every time in the last 30 years an incoming Labour government has found that the Conservatives have left a scorched earth policy behind them and a muddle of high taxation.

As for the allegation that Tony Blair is stealing the Tories' clothes, I would have thought that they wouldn't have fitted him very well as no responsible person could believe that Labour would dare to show themselves as naked in public as John Major's government has done on policy over the last few years.

Finally, blaming the Labour Party for the inadequacies of the past might have been a good wheeze for the Tories when governments changed like revolving doors at general elections, but in this case, it has been an unbroken succession from the fantasy land of the Thatcher era to the land of horror and casualties under the Major regime.

DUNCAN McVEE, Robin Bank Road, Darwen.

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