REGARDING the article in The Northern Echo about the failed efforts of the Tory candidate for the Middlesbrough seat in the last General Election (July 4).

Toryboy John Walsh is reported as having said: “if the government cuts are bad everywhere else, here they are going to be horrific”.

The article goes on to state that his opponent in the contest, Sir Stuart Bell, had notched up his seventh General Election victory in the town.

He secured 15,351 votes, more than double the number polled by his nearest rival, Lib Dem candidate Chris Foote-Wood, on 6,662. Mr Walsh came third with 6,283 Mr Walsh was reported as being, “clearly frustrated by the apathetic voters he comes across on the streets who say they would not change the way they vote and shrug at Mr Walsh’s horror at the way they are being treated” by their MP Sir Stuart Bell.

I am somewhat surprised by Mr Walsh’s apparent inability to grasp the facts that if, as he states, cuts “are going to be horrific” and the voters of Middlesbrough have not voted for a prospective Tory government in six previous General Elections, to me it is blindingly obvious that the voters of Middlesbrough had no wish for a Tory-led government.

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