The letter from Anne Lubin on October 13, "Who got us into this mess, anyway?" suggests we are in an unholy mess, despite over three years of Blair's undelivered election promises.

Anne stated she would like to end traffic congestion, but who deregulated buses and privatised the railways? If this was a Tory sin, why does new Labour want to denationalise the London Underground system and privatise air traffic control?

She asks, who cut funding for the Health Service and training places for doctors and nurses? Spending on the NHS was at an all time high at the end of the Major Government. Under Blair, despite the promises (repeated again and again) of massive spending on the NHS, waiting lists soared, morale is at an all time low, winter is a time of crisis in hospitals and the public see no improvement in services.

Who gave us the terrible winter of discontent in 1979 when the country was at breaking point with the dead remaining unburied? When Dennis was the Labour Chancellor we really were in a national fiscal crisis and the IMF was called in to bale us out. The IMF stipulated we had to cut spending on the NHS and cut the pay of doctors and nurses. Perhaps Anne suffered from convenient amnesia by blaming the Tories for this.

Prior to the election of Mrs Thatcher, Britain was the acknowledged sick economy of Europe. VAT on fuel is standard in Europe. The new Labour cut the tax is, on the face of things, good. But is outweighed by the many other stealth taxes and the fact that tax on petrol stands at 73 pence in the pound. We are an oil-rich nation with the highest fuel costs in the world.

Another winter of discontent looms. Let's reflect, who got us into this mess? And who got us into the last monumental mess?

DENNIS WHEATLEY

Longways

Blunsdon