I WOULD like to comment on a Terry Wynn article printed in The Journal - which I found to say the least a little bit disconcerting.
First of all two-thirds of the first column were devoted to self-congratulations of New Labour. You're in now Mr. Wynn, so start doing something constructive for the people in Leigh.
Is it possible all this waffle was used to soften the blow that Mr. Wynn spent what I should imagine were five sun-soaked days in the Carribean on a 'fact-finding mission'?
"Having worked in Strasbourg for the best part of the last eight years" as he himself put it, has I think left him out of touch with the 'Folk of Leigh'. People in Leigh suffer the miserable low wages and working conditions worthy of a Dicken's novel, and are sick of it.
Bananas may be a matter of life and death to some people, but so is being jobless in Leigh, as the readers of The Journal can testify if you care to ask them.
Hopefully New Labour will go along way towards changing this? But, as long as people up the road are in charge I won't be holding my breath.
One change could be a fact finding visit to Leigh.
Another, and probably more popular idea would be to send someone from Leigh (preferably someone who isn't politically motivated) on an all expenses paid trip to some part of the world where the skies are interminably blue; the sea is warm and clear blue to swim in. White shady beaches with lilting palm trees to rest under and drink an ice-cold beer after a hard days fact finding. Let them come home and write a column or two about their experiences.
I'm sure Mr. Wynn would agree first hand experience would help us understand the suffering which allows goods to be sold in Leigh supermarkets.
Does anybody in Leigh really care about Mrs. Kinnock's identity problems during the five days in the Caribbean? No-one I know does.
Does Mr. Wynn write the same column for his other constituent's local paper, substituting the word 'St. Helens' for the word 'Leigh'? Does he call them 'folk'?
Will he have an opportunity to find this letter amusing and mention it in his next article? Don't be so patronising in your next column Mr. Wynn and I won't be too cynical.
To David Morris - stop whingeing. It was your lot that put these people out of work.
John Summer
Platt Street, Leigh.
Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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