I HAD always thought actions speak louder than words. This is now turned on its head as Gordon Brown's rhetoric seems to speak louder than his actions.

One has to wonder how long genuine Labour supporters can vote for him as he adopts Conservative principles to repair the damage caused to them in ten years when he has been such an influential figure in the widening of the gap between the have and have nots through stealth taxes and misguided policies on housing, immigration and cheap credit.

He is lauded for being a safe pair of hands in the face of foot-andmouth when his reduction in funding for Defra (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) caused lack of supervision of the drains at Pirbright, Surrey and almost certainly released the foot-and-mouth virus.

Similarly, he reduced funding for flood defences and the environment, while claiming to favour them.

He was also responsible for changing the system for regulating the banks which caused the panic in the Northern Rock crisis and, incidentally, exposed the acclaimed ten-year independence of the Bank of England as a myth.

We now endure his empty words about Britishness as his actions lead to more loss of powers in the new EU constitution/treaty giveaway.

John Heslop, Gainford, near Darlington.

WE are all supposed to give Gordon Brown the thumbs up. Are we talking about the same person who sold our gold off cheap (and now is worth double), plundered the pension funds but, worst of all, abolished the 10p in the pound rate of income tax, doubling it to 20p in the pound from next April?

The lowest paid workers will be the only people paying extra income tax - higher earners will pay less.

Shame on him and everybody who promotes his policies. Labour is supposed to be for working class people.

No wonder we have the lowest election turnout in Europe.

Unfortunately, we have three main parties all with basically the same policies.

Mrs A Lea, Darlington.