AT last, it's official -- the Labour Party is split from top to bottom. But what surprises me is that the media have not picked up on this before.

Over the last few years, the Press would have us believe that it was the Tories who were split. Yet it was obvious to anyone with half a brain that the grassroot members of the Labour Party have nothing in common with Tony Blair, or should I say the new Tony Blair.

Gone are the CND badges, the anti-privatisation principles and almost everything held dear in the dinosaurs of the past -- the only trouble being that the dinosaurs still exist in every constituency Labour Party throughout the country.

Publicly they praise Tony, privately, they despise him. One long-standing member of the Labour Party said to me recently that Blair has sold out every principle the party ever had.

Now, it's starting to show, with Tony's hairline ever receding, Prescott's scowl growing ever longer and Straw's incompetence becoming a major political joke. Now, we have the unions flexing their muscles with strikes becoming more prevalent.

The NHS is now in a state of meltdown yet Tony has had five years to make a difference. I wonder what happened to "24 hours to save the NHS."

We now hear that the Iron Chancellor, Gordon Brown, may put up income tax to pay for better public services. So what's new? Since being elected in 1997 he has increased taxes by stealth, while giving nothing in return.

JOHN FARRER, Mallard Place, Oswaldtwistle.