SIR Edward Heath, during his Prime Ministership, referred to the Lohnro affair as 'the ugly face of capitalism.' He now comes out in favour of a minimum wage, as I do.

Perhaps he should be in the Labour Party.

Meanwhile, Lord Callaghan, according to several opinion polls, lost a general election to the Conservatives because of his view that there was no need for a minimum wage.

Perhaps he should have joined the Conservative Party.

Both these two former Prime Ministers strongly urged us, in a referendum campaign to remain in the European Community, which severely warned of a terrible figure of one million unemployed if we came out.

The sad fact is that we have more than double that number unemployed, plus masses of people earning less than that in other EU countries. There is also another large section of the community stressed out through working far too many hours under pressure.

Having visited countries where there is little or no unemployment, I found it very significant how little crime there was.

It is long overdue that our politicians addressed these critical problems as a matter of urgency, instead of distancing themselves from the real world.

TOM CULBERT, Shropshire Drive, Wilpshire, Blackburn.

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