HOW can the Lancashire Evening Telegraph's claim that it 'strives to maintain high standards of accuracy, fairness and balance' be sustained when it is obviously slanted to the Left? Going off your Opinion column (LET, July 3), it would have one believe that it is on Labour's honeymoon too.

Can there be any other reason why the column promoted Labour's misleading propaganda that pensioners and low-income groups will be £90 better off on their fuel bills?

Yet, the Budget graphic on the opposite page clearly indicated the saving will be a paltry £9, or 17.3p a week - not enough to cover the 19p increase on a packet of cigarettes.

Both cannot be right. If the graphic is correct, then it will only compound the misery of the worst-off by giving them false hope. That is grossly unfair.

Moreover, the graphic had the intolerable situation of single persons being better off. They gain while the married couple with two children will actually be the biggest losers. Is that reasonable?

Not taken into account are road tax, dearer petrol, the increase in car insurance to cover hospital bills and the usual tobacco and alcohol increases.

Then, there is the pension scam which, ultimately, will force employers' costs up, in turn increasing the likes of Council Tax, or, alternatively, putting jobs in jeopardy to maintain the status quo.

Not long ago, this insipid Chancellor along with the ever-grinning Prime Minister were saying: "Watch our lips - no tax rises."

Nevertheless, in their first Budget they managed to bring in 17 new taxes - a valiant attempt, all in one go, to beat the previous government's 22 tax rises.

This Budget is a very clever con to fox the electorate over the effects of tax increases which will seep out like a cracked drain.

In real terms, it is equivalent to a 3p rise on the standard rate of Income Tax.

Then, for afters, there is an expected interest rate rise, with all its side effects. The clobbering has begun and will increase as Labour gains more confidence.

WALT MEADOWS, Whalley New Road, Blackburn.

Footnote: The Chancellor did say the fall in the average annual fuel bill would be £90 - as a result of VAT on domestic bills being cut from eight to five per cent from September and the abolition next April of the gas levy currently charged on purchases by gas companies. The graphic related only to VAT. The Opinion column is just that - an independent opinion, not blindly blinkered to one particular party - Editor.

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