I WAS disappointed but sadly not surprised at Ivan Lewis's recent appearance on TV's Newsnight.

He had been rolled out to speak up for Tony Blair's madcap scheme to cut child benefit from parents whose children play truant.

I was particularly saddened at the way Mr Lewis MP, of the three main parties represented, adopted the most right-wing position. It was left to the Tories and the Liberals to try and explain the causes for truanting in terms of an uninspiring National Curriculum and meagre expectations of children.

What was perhaps most disappointing was the apparent absence of any compassion on the part of the Minister for these children and their parents, rather they appeared to be nuisance statistics unfortunately conflicting with the message that things have got better. We are now five years into a New Labour Government and many things have simply not got better.

Blair and his acolytes have not only followed the neo-liberal agenda set out by the Tories, they have embraced it wholeheartedly, moving on with privatisation and crackpot schemes in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Who, apart from the Cabinet, really think that a privatised company can safely run a railway?

The dangers of the Labour party abandoning its roots are all too obvious in the Burnley result. In a vacuum created by a Government with no substance retreating from its social base, space has been created for the Nazi right.

Fortunately in Prestwich socialists, many of whom have left New Labour in disgust, have banded together and stood as a Socialist Alliance. The election result in Holyrood was pleasing. This was the first time for many years that socialists have stood for an election in this constituency and hopefully it marks the start of a prolonged campaign.

Ivan Lewis, however unwittingly, may help to create a vacuum. We are here to ensure that it will not be filled by the fascists.

MIKHIL KARNIK