Gordon Brown

HAS correspondents and the media in general, including The Northern Echo, have painted a distorted picture of a man whose humanity and integrity are beyond question and who possesses one of the sharpest intellectual minds in Parliament.

If we are to weather the current global storm, who better at the helm than the man who has given this country 11 years of growth and prosperity with social justice at the forefront of his achievements?

The alternative is the man recently described as the person who carried the bag for Norman Lamont during Black Wednesday.

What about the removal of the ten per cent tax band, you shout?

Where was it during 18 years of calamitous Tory rule when there was the basic rate of 23 per cent?

Mr Brown initially reduced this to 22 per cent, now 25 per cent, while first introducing the lower ten per cent rate, now removed. Remedial action has since been taken to restore the status quo.

When David Cameron was asked if he would re-introduce the ten per cent band no answer was forthcoming.

Maurice Baker, Middlestone Moor, Spennymoor, Co Durham.

SEVERAL correspondents have written in defence of, and to criticise, Gordon Brown.

But it seems a little naive to ask for the attacks against the Prime Minister to stop (HAS, May 14) when it is Mr Brown's own ministers and MPs who are orchestrating those attacks.

Let's not forget that Mr Brown became PM by acclamation. He did not win a General Election, nor was he elected by the Labour Party.

We have every right as voters to question his competence and personal qualities when the very future of our country is at stake.

Martin Callanan Conservative MEP, North-East England.