REGARDING the minimum wage and the threshold at which it is to be implemented, I don't know whether to be angry or amused at what appears to be a far-from-ideal situation.

Listening to Chancellor Gordon Brown and industry minister Ian McCartney defending the Treasury-led approach to the monetary arrangements, there springs to mind the Hans Christian Andersen story, the Emperor's New Clothes in which two enterprising spin doctors persuade their customer that he's wearing a new suit when actually he's naked.

The arrangement concerning the wage rate is exactly similar in that Mr Brown, Tony Blair and Mr Ian McCartney are trying to sell a policy that won't cure low wages no matter how much they try to convince others that getting an agreement to a minimum wage is historic. That it's a start is good, but when Mr Brown announces that, for a few years at least, it's set at the figure they've announced and directly contrary to the Low Pay Commission findings, then it is a case of imagination over reality.

Mr Brown should be ashamed of himself. But before the Tories start to gloat, let them remember if they had treated people fairly in the first place the Labour government would not be now facing a situation where expectation is going to fall short of justice, equality and fairness.

DUNCAN McVEE, Robin Bank Road, Darwen.

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