THE rates for this borough, if increased by the now proposed 15 per cent next year, will, over a three-year span, have gone up by nearly 50 per cent. Not bad for a government which boasted no rise in taxes.

What we have got in return is anybody's guess, and now we are told that we have to open our arms to even more asylum seekers in the town.

What that would do to our taxes I dread to think. I trust people will remember that next year we also have the start of the You Pay For It scheme (also known as PFI) where we pay increased taxes to have schools built in Swindon.

If Mr D'Avila thinks it's a good idea, perhaps he will form a roster of his like-minded friends and offer up a room in each of their houses and support them. Can someone remind him of the hopeless state of the council housing stock and the wait for inclusion on the housing list. Charity begins at home, I think.

In his grand speech to the Labour Party conference, Mr Blair said that reform in the education system was needed to stop the better-off buying better education or moving homes to go to better schools".

Is this why he refused to send his children to Labour controlled schools in Islington or why Baroness Morgan has also opted out of state schools and gone private, to name but two?

T Reynolds

Wheeler Avenue

Swindon