STEPHEN HADDEN (HAS, June 6) typifies the inability of Labour supporters to think independently.

It was not me but the Financial Times that stated that manufacturing reduced under Labour at three times the rate of the Thatcher years. It was not me but the Office of National Statistics that recently stated that the number of jobless households doubled under Labour.

County Durham unbelievably lost over ten per cent of manufacturing jobs from 1998 to 2005, according to the Durham County Council website.

In 2007, prior to the worst recession in memory, joblessness in County Durham was 162 per cent higher than that of the rest of the nation as a whole.

Jim Tague, Bishop Auckland.