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I CAN'T help wondering if anyone really knows what is good for Britain. It is a certainty that the present Government does not. One thing certain is that I am much worse off. Every Budget for several years now has seen my standard of living eroded.

Last year we were informed that after the next Budget (ie. the latest one) no pensioner would have less than £100 a week. Wrong, my weekly pension is still significantly short of the promised figure, and the miserable increase I did receive was more than swallowed up by the latest rise in council tax.

The Cabinet is running out of control. The last reshuffle merely moved failures to other positions. People now hold senior posts who have little or no connection with the electorate at large and certainly little fiscal ability.

We need a Prime Minister with the ability to recognise inefficiency and the courage to act upon that recognition. Alternatively, we could involve President Bush. His orders seem to carry more weight that the wishes of the British electorate. - Eric Nelson, Darlington.

THE last election proved that apathy is festering, which would suggest that there are problems in our so-called democratic way of doing things.

There are many concerns regarding what seem to be huge sums of money ending up in a big black hole and the people we are supposed to be helping are no better off and are, in many cases, worse off.

One hears of public sector bureaucrats receiving 50 per cent pay rises, of council taxes rising by 13 per cent, and still there are cuts in services. Public sector pension funds costing more than public services themselves, the NHS receiving extra billions, yet services getting worse. Huge increases in education and other public services, yet many areas in crisis.

Now we see a massive rise in taxes and the usual platitudes: "It is the better off who can afford it". It is the better off who will put New Labour back where it was before 1997.

Jobs are, for the most part, poorly paid and getting fewer and fewer. Crime in many of our regions is at epidemic proportions. London is the crime and drug capital of the West; even a small town like Crook is getting the distinction of being a "drug capital". The list is endless and I do not believe we are doing better, only that we are told by spin we are. - John Young, Crook.

I AM generally rather pleased with this Government. Tony Blair has shown himself to be quite a statesman. After the terrorist attacks on New York, I was proud when President George W. Bush told the American Congress that his country had no firmer friend than Great Britain. We have responded with the availability of our armed forces.

On policy at home, I welcome the additional funding for the NHS announced in the Budget and the £200 winter fuel allowance paid to pensioners. - LD Wilson, Guisborough.

THE record of the Tories' 18 years in power was the worst in living memory. They made the country cry during that time. Then we keep reading about this bad Labour Government, no doubt from the Tory voters.

As for Gordon Brown inheriting a good economy - it is in far better shape now. When the Tories were in power, interest rates were 15 per cent for more than 12 months, mortgage rates were 15 per cent, there were record house repossessions, transport, hospitals and schools were left to decay, all our public services were sold off to their rich friends in the city.

It was the Tory Party that urged workers to abandon works pensions and go into private pension schemes in the first place, now to their bitter disappointment.

The Tories also decimated the mining, shipbuilding and the steel industries, and made four million unemployed. The unemployment figures today are the lowest for more than 25 years. Employment schemes, such as the New Deal would be abolished under the Tories.

These people must think we will never forget all the wrongs the Tories did in those 18 disastrous years. Now we hear them say when they get back in power they will do this and that. Why didn't they do it when they had the chance? Let's hope the Tory toffs are never again given this country. - Name and address supplied.

YOU ask us to tell you the differences since the Conservatives went and Labour came in.

Well all you can say is that the NHS, BT, British Rail, gas, electricity and water were all privatised by the Conservatives. All were well run and making money, but as soon as they were privatised, the running of this country went downhill. As you know, it is very easy to go downhill but try to come up as quickly. What I and millions of others want to know is, where did all the money go?

The intelligence of this country is virtually nil if people have to ask the Prime Minister if his son has had the measles vaccine. When we were young, we did what we thought was the right thing to do for the best and stood by what we did. But now it seems that people have lost the power to think for themselves and blame the Prime Minister for everything.

The NHS was quite wonderful, operations were done in reasonably short times, floors were clean, beds were fresh, food was edible, ambulances were on time and nurses were plentiful and obliging. I won't go into detail about how it declined after privatisation, thanks to the Conservatives.

Who was it that interfered with allowances mainly by taking away not giving and who started the prices rising on petrol, council tax?

Please, please, please, no more Conservatives. - Mrs A Jackson, Brinkburn.

IT is my opinion that Tony Blair is a genuine, honest family man who is trying so hard against terrific odds to deliver his promises.

As a pensioner, my lot has improved immensely. I have a decent pension which always reminds me of the miserly ten shillings a week my mother received in the good old days.

We receive a Christmas bonus, £200 fuel allowances, my car tax has been reduced and I no longer pay for my TV licence. In other words, I have no complaints.

You ask if any extra money has been spent on schools, so I asked a friend who is a head teacher. Her reply was: "The schools are awash with money."

We can see with our own eyes new hospitals being built at Durham, Darlington and Bishop Auckland. My own family doctor's surgery has doubled in size and is now fitted with all mod cons, together with nurses, receptionists and a secretary, previously non-existent.

Our Prime Minister is respected by other leaders throughout the world and he has earned that respect. - Robin Angus, Haswell Plough.