I DON'T often stray into national politics, but with everybody knocking Tony Blair these days I thought it worthwhile reminding the Tories about a few things mentioned by Gordon Brown in his speech to the TUC on September 9.
Britain now has the lowest long-term unemployment since 1976;
The lowest female unemployment since 1975
The lowest male unemployment since 1974
More lone parents in employment than at any time in our history
Where there used to be 350,000 young people long-term unemployed there are now just 5,000
Now lower unemployment than Germany, France, America and Japan
More people in work in Britain today than at any time in the history of our country.
Remember the claim of Michael Howard -- Employment Minister at the time of the ERM fiasco and now Shadow Chancellor -- that the minimum wage would cost Britain a million jobs?
Talk about getting it wrong. We have a minimum wage and we have not lost a million jobs. We have created a million jobs.
COUN TIM O'KANE, Charles Street, Clayton-le-Moors.
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