UNDER the heading of "Straw still thinking of Deputy bid" (LT, December 30), Jack Straw enthusiastically throws his support behind Chancellor Gordon Brown as the leader/Prime Minister and at the same time keeps his powder dry as to whether he stands or not for the post of deputy leader.

Hopefully, at some time in the not too distant future, Jack Straw will also tell us which policies he and Gordon Brown will be advocating during an election contest.

Can we expect them to continue the massive privatisation of public services already pursued by this Government under the guise of modernisation. Presumably we can take it as read that Gordon Brown's Private Finance Initiative (PFI) will continue to heap chaos in the National Health Service and we can also take it for granted that Jack Straw supports an extension of the PFI chaos which is destined for primary school education in East Lancashire?

As Jack Straw and Gordon Brown both support the Tory anti-union laws we can presume that workers in the UK will continue to work the longest hours, have the least holidays and pensions and be the easiest and cheapest to sack of any of the major European countries under a New Labour administration that they are both leading.

It was Gordon Brown's department that financed the war with Iraq and Jack Straw was one of those prominent in leading the UK into it, perhaps one of them can tell us how we are going to get out of it?

DON RISHTON, Livesey Branch Road, Blackburn.