IT seems that the whole of the Labour Party in Leigh is singing to the same tune. They all it seems believe that within Wigan Metro there should be a one party state.

They cannot stand anyone to challenge them, as is clearly portrayed in the letter by John O'Brien, where he puts forward some of the calculations for the local election.

These figures, he argues, show that the Green Party should not put up candidates against the Labour Party.

But as any mathematician will tell you, anything can be achieved by careful manipulation of figures. However what is clear from the figures is that though the Green Party failed to take any seats we are now effectively the opposition, taking us into a clear second position to the Tory's in third place - Lab 68.5% - Green 15.1% - Tory 12.3% - Lib-Dem 4%.

But let us play with those figures a little bit more and look at the total percentage Labour obtained of the possible votes that could have been cast and we see that Labour instead of being invincible, only polled 10.9% of the vote.

How then can any party claim the support of the majority of the public, least of all Labour, who hold all of the cards and can still only have a pretence of a win.

But just one more stab at the figures: the average number of votes cast for the Labour Party in Hope Carr over the last few years is 1800. This year the Labour vote dropped by 33% to only 1270. This, especially with all the puff that Labour supporters are doing is quite clear, for the first time ever Labour are worried and it is the Green Party that are worrying them.

And as for a rest, the Green Party are only just getting into second gear. We promise every blunder of Labour will make front page, if not in The Journal, then on our leaflets.

Chris Maile

Leigh Green Party

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