ON the day the Cabinet met in Durham City and BBC Question Time came from Middlesbrough and on the eve of the Corus plant closure you would have thought there would have been a Cabinet minister on the panel or at least one of the local Labour MPs.

No. Instead, we got former deputy Labour leader Roy (now Lord) Hattersley. That just about sums up this running-scared Government and the sooner it is voted out the better for the country and the North-East in particular.

Andrew Smart, Elwick Village, Hartlepool.