I SEEM to have upset G E Rayner (Letters, February 18) by giving credit where credit was due - to well-paid Tory MPs Nigel Evans and Iain Duncan-Smith.

I wrote (Letters, February 12) of an actuality that has only now been resolved and was more concerned with the distress caused than the political party responsible.

How on earth does Mr Rayner know that three million pensioners needed support for a bare existence. Was he personally involved?

I doff my cap - I can only speak authoritatively of one case.

Mr Rayner seems obsessed with useless 30-year-old statistics to try and condemn the Tories.

Does he know New Labour have been in office for nearly two years without making any reparation to pensioners, not even relaxing the conditions for cold weather payments?

A SEDGWICK (Mr), Lyndhurst Avenue, Blackburn.

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