ALTHOUGH, doubtless, it was by chance that your letters page included an attack on me by Derek Boden on the same day (July 22), it was interesting as you led the front page with the news that Tony Blair had postponed the election of the North West Assembly.

A minor triumph for me and others who share my opinion on this matter.

I do not need to have had direct experience in last month's ballot to justify my calling it a shambles.

It may have gone swimmingly in Bury, but that was not the case in neighbouring Bolton, Wigan and Blackburn and in other parts of the country.

I am not against postal voting per se, indeed I have, in the past, availed myself of it, when I would otherwise have been on holiday at election time.

Incidentally, I do not recall any great difficulty in making the arrangement and it certainly did not involve my doctor!

The councillor must concede that to have insisted on a postal vote on such a vast scale, when the machinery to ensure its success was clearly lacking and the time scale too onerous, was foolhardy and bloody-minded.

One hopes lessons will have been learned from it, but it is not only the logistics of such voting that needs to be solved.

There will always be more risks of fraud compared with a vote in the sanctity of the polling booth. Will Mr Boden deny that?

KEITH REYNOLDS, Wyre Crescent, Darwen.