HOW terrible that nurses have been told that they will have to wait for their pay rises (LET, April 10), in spite of Health Secretary Frank Dobson's promise that they would get them this month.

Has this government got a death wish or something? It is clear that all their histrionics, when Frank Dobson announced the rise back in February, were so much pie-in-the-sky.

How can you trust people who behave like this - on the one hand praising the wonderful work done by the nursing profession, while on the other saying they would have to wait?

Is this yet another example of Labour's stealth and arrogance, saving one month's rise (at least) - to reduce the cost of the rise, I wonder?

The "explanation" for the delay simply will not wash - are they seriously expecting people to believe that, in spite of knowing full well that a procedure had to be gone through, Frank Dobson went ahead anyway, in the vain hope that the nurses would not mind?

This is Labour spin-doctoring gone mad! Do they think that a carrot is an adequate substitute for money in the pocket?

GRANVILLE BROADHURST, Sharples Street, Accrington.

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