THE controlling Labour group on Blackburn with Darwen Council boasted that this year's increase in Council Tax is modest at only £43, but it is still double the rate of inflation. Band 'D,' now at £913, is £252 higher than four years ago and one of the highest in the land.

The hikes do not stop with Council Tax. The Labour government has put up taxes left, right and centre - on petrol, pensions, house purchases, insurance, alcohol and smoking. Now, they have even abolished the married couples' allowance and mortgage tax relief, which just adds to the cost of living.

What people saw last month was the starting rate of Income Tax cut from 20p to 10p. What they didn't see, is the 23p rate creeping up on more of their earnings, with 20p in every £1 still disappearing from their savings and investments.

Pensioners and those whose only income above the tax-free personal allowance is from savings interest, will not even qualify for the much-trumpeted 10 per cent tax on the first £1,500. Gordon Brown has already refused to back down over the abolition of tax credits on dividends. From this month, the tax credit on ordinary share dividends will be cut from 20 per cent to 10. People with investments in PEPs and ISAs - who are effectively non-taxpayers - will be able to claim the tax credit, as normal, but their income will fall by about 10 per cent while non-taxpayers and pensioners will not be granted the same privilege - they will see their income fall by 20 per cent - and at a time when they are suffering from dismal annuity rates.

The Government seems to think that people have unlimited money to pay for these higher taxes, that they can take a bit more here and a bit more there and put up taxes by stealth, hoping nobody will notice.

They are wrong: most people have to live within a tight budget and work hard to make ends meet - and they have begun to notice that Labour's promises count for nothing.

COUN JAMES H HIRST, (Beardwood with Lammack Ward), Blackburn Conservative Association, Duckworth Street, Blackburn.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.