DURING the General Election campaign, we heard much from Tony Blair and Labour about how the Tories were destroying the NHS and how it could only be saved by a Labour government.

Now, one year on, we can see just how empty those promises were.

Waiting lists have risen by 100,000.

Hospitals which Labour candidates promised would remain open, have closed.

Whereas they promised to increase spending on health, the Government has cut the growth in spending. Next year health spending will rise by just 2.2 per cent, compared with an average of 3.1 per cent over the last 18 years of Conservative government. This will cost the NHS £940 million over two years.

And finally, no doubt thousands of nurses across the land were persuaded to vote Labour in the expectation that they would receive a big rise in their pay. But, like the teachers, they were doomed to be disappointed.

Obviously, in Mr Blair's eyes, it's all right for the Lord Chancellor, Lord Irvine, to spend a fortune on doing up his apartments. but when it comes to rewarding our nurses who do a wonderful job, he doesn't want to know.

J LEE, Ramsgreave Drive, Blackburn.

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