REGARDING your report about Lancashire County Council earmarking 19 homes for the elderly for closure (LET, February 1).

The Labour councillors are talking tommy-rot, when they make the excuse that the Government has imposed new regulations and standards, which apply also to the private sector.

What was their excuse last year, the year before that and so on, for the systematic closure of these homes over a long period?

And by their own admission, they are a complete failure because it costs them £75 per week per person more than the private sector, to give the same service -- and they have to make a profit.

If it is truly the Government's responsibility for these closures and not the county council picking on the weakest in society, then they should be held to account, for New Labour consistently tells us that we are the fourth richest nation on earth.

Yet it cannot give our disabled and elderly people a genuinely good standard of living first before filling up the begging bowls that are placed before it from overseas virtually every day

The elections come in May and it is time for the 'grey vote' to muster and let Tony Blair know how dissatisfied they are with his performance.

This is our chance to give the local New Labour bumpkins a well-deserved kick in the pants.

WALT MEADOWS, Whalley New Road, Blackburn.