Letter to our Prime Minister

Dear Gordon Brown,

After ten years of Labour Government it seems appropriate to review our situation.

I write as a one-time active supporter (and paid-up member) of the Labour Party.

I am no longer a paid-up member and you are becoming perilously close to losing my support as well.

So, what's gone right? Well, not much actually. All I can think of from my personal point of view as a "senior citizen" is that I have benefited from an annual payment of a winter fuel allowance and I also have a free bus pass. So thanks for that (though even the winter fuel allowance is now looking a bit sick against the huge rise in energy prices these past few months).

I used to think devolving power to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland was a good idea. It still is a good idea except that you made a botched job of it by completely ignoring England in the process, so we now have MPs from the Celtic fringes determining the laws that govern the English, but the English have no say whatsoever in the laws governing the domestic matters of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. I've nothing against having a UK Prime Minister who is a Scot representing a Scottish constituency, but you'd better wake up and smell the coffee that is the resentment currently brewing in England. So - only 5 out of 10 for devolution.

As for the rest, well it's all been downhill...

• We have been committed to an illegal war based on false intelligence.
• Our children are being tested to destruction to meet targets.
• Our hospitals keep incoming patients outside in ambulances to meet bed targets.
• It's almost impossible for most people to find an NHS dentist.
• Indirect taxation has gone through the roof.
• Billions of taxpayers' £s have been used to shore up a badly managed bank.
• Immigration from eastern Europe, Asia and Africa is completely out of control.
• Personal data held on government IT systems have been lost on a massive scale.
• Children in parts of our cities are totally out of control, shooting and knifing each other and beating up and killing anyone who dares to confront them.
• Children are getting drunk out of their skulls on a daily basis using easily available and cheap alcohol.
• Many town centres are no-go areas at night unless you enjoy watching drunken idiots (many of them women) urinating and vomiting in the streets.
• The Family Tax Credit system is so complicated and badly managed that it is not being used by those who need it, and those who do use it find themselves being told they've been overpaid, and face demands for it to be returned.
• The Police are useless because most of their time is spent on paperwork.
• We pander to the sectional demands of immigrant groups instead of encouraging them to integrate into British society.
• We translate leaflets and signs into dozens of different languages instead of insisting on the learning of one common language.
• The condition of our roads is a disgrace, and if we want to travel by train we are faced with the most expensive railway system in the whole of Europe.
• Our Members of Parliament misappropriate our money in outrageous expenses claims, including the payment of family members for work that cannot be quantified, or for trivial maintenance jobs on second or third homes.
• We are subjected to a constant barrage of Government exhortations and regulations as a substitute for real policy or sense of direction. It is micromanagement to the nth degree.

I will close by reminding you that it is generally the case that Opposition Parties do not win general elections, Governments lose them. This, I strongly suspect, is what is going to happen to you at the next General Election, and it will be well deserved.