IT would appear that all New Labour MPs have been programmed to utter the same message, like those dolls that say 'mama' - only these say "we stood as New Labour and were going to govern as New Labour."

The latest phrase, 'affluence testing,' will put fear into many. Will they count my chairs and shall I hide the piano? The era of the Means Test is here again.

As for getting the country back to work, New Labour is putting the cart before the horse. They should bring in the social chapter, the minimum wage and a solid framework for employee training, not six-monthly job schemes, and make sure people being 'helped' into work are offered security and a proper living wage.

Then the people now being 'helped' won't be on the scrapheap again because some employers, who, it appears, are to get backhanders to encourage them to take on some of these people, decide they are no longer needed, thus returning them to a lower benefit.

Or is that the idea?

SAM SPENCER, Ribblesdale Place, Blackburn.

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