SIR: Am I correct to conclude that the flurry of letters from Tory Party supporters on your pages means that Tom Sackville has already started his re-election campaign? If so, he is right to worry about Ruth Kelly, for she has a strong chance of winning Bolton West for Labour.

Mr Sackville's government has dogmatically pursued policies which are socially divisive and economically disastrous, despite clear evidence that their underlying assumption - that the free market solves everything - is false.

The first victims of these policies were the most vulnerable, least articulate members of society (the low paid, unemployed, mentally ill, etc. ) who don't vote for Mr Sackville, don't write letters to BEN, and who can therefore be ignored. However, as the policies work through to their logical conclusion, the middle class suburbs which make up so much of Bolton West are feeling their effects in the form of job insecurity, the depressed house market, high crime levels and low student grants.

Personally, I don't care where Ms Kelly comes from, as long as she brings some intelligence and humanity to the job - and gets rid of Tom Sackville.

Nick Hallett,

Broom Way, Westhoughton, Bolton.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.