AFTER New Labour lost half of its councillors from Newton Aycliffe in the May local elections, it would appear that not taking the electorate for granted has soaked in.

Newton Aycliffe is the largest town within the Sedgefield constituency, but it has only now warranted a Labour Party office and - daily - activists race to put more paperwork destined for the bin through the letter box than the postman.

This is followed by doorstep visits from people who automatically think everyone will vote for Labour.

I challenged a young person to explain what New Labour has done for pensioners since 1997. Without offering any reply he walked away.

It would appear New Labour can afford to ignore pensioners' questions, or else the activist realised it had done very little to improve the lot of those who no longer contribute to the wealth of the country and who it penalises at every opportunity.

Since New Labour achieved control of this country the pensioner's lot has gone backwards.

We are stuck with inflation-rated increases, while councils can increase council tax over inflation, council housing rents are inflation plus £2 until 2012 and income tax is levied on the state pension. Vote New Labour. I think not.

Peter Dolan, Newton Aycliffe.

SURELY the Labour Party activists who jostled Tory leader David Cameron and hurled abuse and shoved Liberal Democrats in the Sedgefield constituency (Echo, July 7) should be questioned by Durham Police for public order offences?

I am all for free speech, but it appears to me that these individuals were not out in small numbers to publicly proclaim their left-wing policies, but to bring as much chaos as they possibly could to the usually quiet streets of Newton Aycliffe and Trimdon.

Tony Blair may now be gone, but I suggest that he asks his "comrades"

to view the photographs of these embarrassing scenes in The Northern Echo, and to banish those responsible from the Labour Party.

These Labour activists have brought nothing but shame to the North-East and they should be dealt with in a court of law. If these protestors were members of the BNP, then they would still be in the police cells now, and we simply cannot have one law for one political party and another for left-wing militants who believe that they are the untouchables of our society.

Christopher Wardell, Darlington.

I SEE the Sedgefield by-election has caused all sorts of people to come out of the woodwork and send me leaflets saying how much they care about my town of Ferryhill and the whole of the constituency.

Given how strongly they feel, it's amazing that before the election was called they'd managed to keep their passion for Ferryhill so quiet.

For example, the Liberal Democrats were desperate for candidates in the recent local elections, since 16 whole wards didn't have a single LibDem candidate. So did the present LibDem candidate jump at the chance of representing our area?

No, he preferred to campaign in Newcastle, where he is a councillor.

Fair enough, but it's a bit much to then go round saying how local you are. In fact, if I were a rude man, I'd call it deceit and spin.

The only guy passionate about Ferryhill and all of our constituency is Labour's Phil Wilson. He's a local guy who has lived here all his life.

I'm voting for Phil Wilson.

David Newell, Ferryhill.