CHRISTOPHER Mudd’s experience of our welfare system (HAS, Jan 5) is typical of Labour which came to power 13 years ago promising reform.

Tony Blair staked his reputation on it and then Chancellor Gordon Brown promised: “There will be no fifth option to stay at home on full benefit.” Instead, it has metamorphosed from a safety net to a comfort blanket for millions of people. It can be more beneficial to claim rather than contribute.

The myth that Labour is somehow champion of the working man is further exposed when you consider data held by the Office for National Statistics that shows the importance of manufacturing to the economy has declined more rapidly since 1997 than it did during the Thatcher era.

The Prince’s Trust has identified the “lost generation”

of one in five of our young who are neither in work or education.

Hardly surprising, considering more businesses have gone bust in this recession than in any previous downturn.

The social research charity, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, states that levels of poverty, unemployment and repossessions have been on the rise since before the downturn, with poverty at the same level as it was in 2000 and two million children in low-income families.

Des More, Darlington.