IT is clear to anybody with a simple grasp of economics that our economy was never in the safe hands that the "Iron Chancellor"

wanted us to believe.

I have pointed out before the record number of bankruptcies and house repossessions. Personal debt has never been higher and this was the basis on which Gordon Brown handled our economy.

Labour say that more people are in employment, which is possible considering more people are in the country.

The fact is that more than six million people are dependent on benefits, including 1.2 million young people who are neither in work nor in training.

Then there are the job losses, hospital ward closures, the high levels of superbugs on our wards and a postcode lottery on treatment.

The tax burden has increased, not including the unacceptable levels of council tax increases, so where did our money go?

One in four children are unable to read or write properly as they enter secondary education.

Our prisons are in crisis and violent crime is rising all the time.

I will say again. I will put the worst period under Margaret Thatcher against this country now after ten years of Labour.

Des More, Darlington.