ANOTHER set of statistics from Robin King (Letters, April 14) shows Labour politicians and their supporters haven't yet understood how effectively they spend our money is as important as how much they spend.

Labour's cock-eyed priorities for the NHS - its bureaucracy, and its insistence that minor operations keep the chronically ill waiting, to massage the figures - are a disgrace. That's why their unworkable NHS plan is already driving the medical profession to the point of open mutiny.

Class sizes, like the length of waiting lists, are the wrong measure of success or failure. Are our children getting the right type of education, with the parental choice and the flexibility to suit the individual child? Under Labour, the answer is an emphatic 'No'.

They want to put children through a 'bog standard' system in the hope every child will come out with 'bog standard' results.

The gap between rhetoric and reality has never been wider than in Labour's treatment of children. It's disgraceful.

And Robin's complacency over the economy may come back to haunt him.

His Government inherited the best economy for generations. It has chosen to throw away much of our hard-won competitiveness, and small businesses are much more reluctant to take people on, with all the extra regulation and costs Labour has sponsored. It shouldn't surprise us that a Government with no experience of creating jobs and wealth so misreads what it should do, if the private sector is to compete. But the consequences of this lack of interest and lack of understanding are inescapable.

Economists are starting to see Labour's spending plans are profligate and unaffordable. As if 10p in the pound isn't enough already, taxes under Labour would be bound to rise again if they're re-elected. And still they will fail to do what's right for us as citizens and for our public services.

Meaningless statistics have also been circulating in Lodge Park recently in the form of a leaflet from the Independents' Scott Preston.

Not only does it urge people to vote on May 3 (I thought those elections had been cancelled) but it also refers to the results in Lodge Park division of an election in 1998. There was no such election.

Councillor Gavin Smithers

Rockford Close

Oakenshaw South