REGARDING John Blunt's article 'Christian Blair's own self interest' (LET, April 10), it might not have occurred to him that it isn't too long ago that he was calling Tony and the Labour party red radicals.

Let me tell him that no-one in the Labour party espouses Tory politics as they don't believe in widening the gulf between sections of society which has occurred under the Conservatives in the last 17 years.

Nowhere are the truths more evident that "New Labour" are not Tories in disguise than in the field of economics and foreign affairs, as the BSE scandal and the Scott inquiry spell out.

Perhaps Blunt does believe that he is a defender of the Tory faith, but Christianity as it was first conceived was a radical concept dedicate to bringing together all the strands of society and making each other responsible for his neighbour.

Unfortunately, as this harangue by Blunt shows, the Tories, whom he accuses Labour of copying, only truly believe that really, affluent people are their neighbours and, like the tale of the Samaritan, anyone else in despair or trouble is to be passed by on the other side of the road.

DUNCAN McVEE, Robin Bank Road, Darwen.

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