JUDGING by the tenor of his letter in the issue of June 30, what a cheery chap Trevor Bevis must be. First, let me talk about the old canard he mentions, namely, the Baa Baa Blacksheep nonsense. This was a lie, along with councils doing away with black

JUDGING by the tenor of his letter in the issue of June 30, what a cheery chap Trevor Bevis must be.

First, let me talk about the old canard he mentions, namely, the "Baa Baa Blacksheep" nonsense. This was a lie, along with councils doing away with black bin bags, that was made up by the Sun 'newspaper' (they admitted it a few years later) to denigrate local authorities such as the GLC in order to make it easier for Margaret Thatcher to democratically abolish them.

Mr Bevis points to several things he feels are wrong with Britain. The main problem has been successive Tory governments since 1979. Tony Blair appears like Thatcher's love-child and has ruled us like a Tory since 1997.

Mrs Thatcher hated local democracy and did everything she could to dismantle and de-stabilise it. This is the real reason local government is generally in a state, together with the Council Tax that the Tories introduced in a rush to replace the hated 'poll tax'.

Mr Bevis mentions the trade unions. I agree many of them constantly sell out their members, but we still have some with integrity like Bob Crow of RMT.

Privatisation and PFI are the mantra of our government at present and both are very costly for ordinary people.

Mr Bevis uses the term political correctness as an insult.

What is wrong with trying not to insult people and use terms which do not put people in fear?

I would rather be politically correct than a bigot.

He also talks of free speech. It is free speech that has allowed the neo-Nazi BNP to climb out from under their stones and slime their way on to some local authorities, with the consequent rise in racial attacks on minorities and the tensions that brings.

I await Mr. Bevis' almanac for the break down of society with trepidation.

M MITCHELL

Acacia Grove

March