I READ with interest the letter from Bruce Hogan with the heading "A better country."

 This letter gives a good indication of why the Labour party is in the mess it is in today, and if Mr Hogan thinks the country is better today than it was in 1997 then he is clearly deluded.

Frankly, by selecting Mr Hogan as their candidate for the next general election they are again showing just how out of touch with reality the party is.

This area has long been a socialist thinking area and the hard working Foresters were staunch Labour supporters through and through. My late father was a true socialist at heart but was totally dissolusioned at the cynical way the Labour Party were moving towards a dictatorial system. He could see it coming then, back in the late 80's, and we are staring now into the abyss caused by the Labour politburo policies over the last few years. Unelected Prime Minister ruling the country (when allowed to by the European Union), with his unelected Lord Mandelson living the high life at the taxpayers' expense, and strutting around supporting the man who he previously castigated. (Tony Blair and Prescott have already escaped with their fat pensions intact). 

This country is in a mess, crime and drug addicts are in all our county towns and villages and all on the increase. Immigration is totally out of control.

We are preached at to be tolerant but in doing so we are seeing our national identity changing rapidly, and certainly not for the better. The Labour Party have created thousands of jobs for unelected quangos at the taxpayers' expense, ruined the pension pros­pects of millions of people (unless of course you are a civil servant or work in Government office), and despite the rhetoric, ministers have simply devalued the quality of life and future prospects of millions of British people as a result of pandering to vociferous minority groups and the faceless people in Brussels. 

Finally, if Bruce Hogan thinks he can get away with the campaign he used to get elected to the Lydbrook Parish Council in 1987 he can think again.

I, for one, look forward to the election campaign with relish. – Bryan Cooper, Ridge Place, Worrall Hill.