PETER Billington, secretary of Hyndburn and Rossendale Trade Union Council, states (Letters, May 25) that the local election results 'sent a clear message to new Labour' and that people were not prepared to support the Labour government.
However, the 'message' was not as 'clear' as Mr Billington likes to portray. In fact, Labour made a net gain of councils controlled (five won, four lost) and the Conservatives also made a net gain of one (two won, one lost), while the Liberal Democrats gained one council and lost nine.
Not a bad performance, given all the horrors supposedly perpetrated by the one-year-old Labour Government.
In reality, the mixed bag of election results owes more to local circumstances than the performance of the Government after just one year. The time to judge the performance of the Government is at the next General Election.
COUN DAVE SMITH (Sunnyhurst Ward), Avondale Road, Darwen.
Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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