WE are promised by Gordon Brown that if re-elected he will cut out all the waste, inefficiencies and unnecessary spending that currently occurs.

Excuse me for sounding sceptical, but has Gordon not been in power since 1997?

It begs the question as to why it is only now that he is making these grandiose statements.

Surely if he had been doing his job properly in the first place we would not have to listen to him waxing lyrically now on this matter or have to suffer the consequences of his blatant and inexcusable inaction.

If he is true to his word then the whole of the Government and Westminster will be the first to face the axe!

The people who play the game of politics are all the same. They all talk of doing good, of making the world a better place.

In reality it has always been about power and protecting their interests.

M Hawkins, Langley Park, Durham.

IT amused me this week when Gordon Brown called the Iranians “serial deceivers”.

This from a man whose party has broken more promises than a cowboy builder.

To see Peter Mandelson, unelected cabinet minister and Labour spin doctor, claiming that the North-East will still vote Labour shows a hint of desperation.

G N Bull, Darlington.

IN all the trumpeting on how well Gordon Brown has managed the economy there are two things we would do well to remember he did as Chancellor that I think were monumental errors of judgement.

Firstly, he sold off half of Britain’s gold reserves at the bottom of that market, i.e. $250 an ounce.

The market price today is approximately $1,000 an ounce.

He then raided the pensions industry by taxing dividends, formerly untaxed, thus impoverishing future pensioners at a stroke.

He then tries to take all the credit for avoiding another great depression by persuading us all that debt is really a fantastically good thing.

Don’t forget that personal and government debt has got us into this mess in the first place.

The national debt now mounting will have to be repaid by generations to come.

Gordon Brown, I believe, will not only go down in history as the worst Chancellor, but the worst Prime Minister Britain has ever had.

Peter Hill, School Aycliffe.