AFTER a slow and somewhat repetitive start, Prime Minister Gordon Brown got into his stride and delivered a fine speech to the Labour Party conference in Bournemouth (Echo, Sept 25).

With it being his first speech as leader, Mr Brown knew how important it was to impress and in this he largely succeeded. I like the policy initiatives he announced, including a regular medical checkup for adults funded by the NHS and the provision of hand-held computers for the police.

It was also good to hear Mr Brown praise the British people for the way they had responded to the recent foot-and-mouth outbreak and the attempted terrorist attacks on London and Glasgow.

The favourable reaction to the Prime Minister's speech is well deserved.

LD Wilson, Guisborough.

THE letter from JM Gowland, Newton Aycliffe (HAS, Sept 25) made disgusting reading.

I too feel deeply for all our servicemen and servicewomen in Iraq and Afghanistan and offer my heartfelt sympathy to everyone who has lost dear loved ones in these wars.

I ask what JM Gowland means (but I know in my heart already) when he says that people should think before voting.

I see Prime Minister Gordon Brown as one of the finer Christian politicians and pay tribute to your Political Correspondent, Robert Merrick (whether he's a Socialist like myself or not), for quoting from Mr Brown's conference speech: "Some people say I am too serious and I fight too hard and maybe that's true. But these experiences taught me what families all across Britain will know - that things don't always come easy and there are things worth fighting for."

Highest salutations to my Prime Minister who is of the highest integrity in all things.

Winifred Richardson, Shildon.

FOR a ten-year-old government to see a surge in popularity is very unusual, but when it happens after the Prime Minister's job changes hands, it does not inspire admiration for the previous incumbent of that job.

Gordon impresses with his unflappable demeanour and refreshing candour in a more human way than the boisterous Tony Blair could ever hope to do.

When Gordon is compared to his two opposing party leaders, their lack of deep-felt care and compassion is very apparent.

David Cameron cannot hope to unseat the new PM without hatching a whole new load of innovative and constructive methods to improve and maintain the standards and quality of life provided and maintained impeccably by the Labour Party over the last ten years.

Never in the five decades since the last world war has this country seen so much improvement in the hospitals, schools, road and rail and air services and virtually all the infrastructures underpinning our everyday social lives as the improvements over the last decade.

The new Prime Minister will be more popular than his predecessor because when he speaks it is with confidence and reassurance. He radiates confidence with integrity.

Russell Stewart, Spennymoor.