YOUR Comment column (Echo, Oct 6) was perfect and emphasised the stark choice, or rather lack of it, for the electorate next year.

Do we really wish David Cameron to be our next Prime Minister or have we all forgotten Conservative policies which saw the destruction of our mining industry, the break-up of our national rail network, the sale of our public utilities to foreign companies, the deregulation of bus routes, the privatisation of catering and cleaning services in our schools and hospitals, and that infamous phrase “There is no such thing as society”?

I may not like Gordon Brown and Co, but I will be voting Labour – not to keep them in power, but to keep the Conservatives out as, sadly, there is no credible alternative – and the mere thought of Kenneth Clarke in government again is enough to give one nightmares.

P Holmes, Barnard Castle, Co Durham.