AFTER the General Election last May, the new Labour government moved with speed and efficiency to implement the most radical constitutional reforms this century - in Scotland and Wales - which critics claim will lead to the break-up of the United Kingdom.

The democratic mandate for these reforms was acquired by the approval of 31.7 per cent of the electorate who were entitled to vote.

The recently-published White Paper, 'Fairness at Work,' will require trade unions to pass a 40 per cent threshold of 'Yes' votes of those entitled to vote in order to obtain statutory trade union recognition with an employer. If the same rules had applied at the General Election, two local MPs, Jack Straw, with 35.78 per cent, and Janet Anderson, with 39.38 per cent of the total electorate's vote, would have lost their seats.

Blackburn and Rossendale and Darwen would have no parliamentary representatives. In Hyndburn, the excitement and tension would have reached fever pitch as Greg Pope's votes crept agonizingly to 40.16 per cent of those entitled to vote.

Would our local parliamentary representatives consider it fair and reasonable to stand for re-election because they failed to pass a 40 per cent threshold?

Perhaps one or more of our MPs might explain for the benefit of those of us less well-informed, the reasoning and logic behind this decision.

COUN RON RISHTON, Livesey Branch Road, Blackburn.

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