IT would seem North West Durham Labour MP Pat Glass (HAS, July 19) is reverting to type by ignoring the previous Labour government’s failings.

Just as Labour would have us believe that history began in 1979 under Margaret Thatcher, it would seem we should now brush the past 13 years under the carpet and vent our frustrations at the coalition Government.

Once again Labour leaves behind economic ruin while shouting the loudest about the cuts in public spending necessary to put things right. It was the unpopular and harsh spending cuts made by the Conservatives that gave Labour the best economic conditions in possibly a century back in 1997.

Remember “Education, education, education”?

In 13 years why did Labour not put right the very schools it now accuses the coalition of ignoring? It is interesting to note that many of these schools are in Labour constituencies.

I myself have been critical of the coalition on the grounds it is not what I voted for. That said, I sincerely wish it success, unlike the Labour MPs and their supporters who snipe and sneer at its very existence.

I imagine they would have defended Gordon Brown’s constitutional right to form a coalition of losers as democracy.

Des More, Darlington.

IF the solipsistic Peter Mandelson’s recent memoirs are to be believed, then the political stage has to be much better off without Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.

As I always suspected, these two were always fighting about the top job to the detriment of the country they pretended to serve.

Labour lost its mandate to govern and now it would seem its right to act as Her Majesty’s Opposition. The only time one sees a Labour “name” in the press they are talking about the next Labour leader while publicly washing their hands of any involvement with Mr Brown.

This new gang of four (I’m afraid I exclude Diane Abbott, the nonrider, from this contest) distance themselves from all the policies they enabled while in power. To hear them talk one wonders if they were in the government at all.

While they continue to promote their collective naked ambition, the Con-Dems do what they want.

Labour is again caught in an act of betrayal, not this time against the electorate but its own members.

Colin T Mortimer, Pity Me, Durham.