In response to Mr. Stevens' letter printed in the Devizes edition of the Gazette on May 20, I am confused by Mr. Steven's claim that the "the Labour Party has failed in every way".

He clearly has an unusual concept of failure: the lowest unemployment for 25 years; the lowest interest rates and inflation for 30 years; record numbers of police officers; 25,000 more teachers and 67,400 more nurses.

Mr Stevens talks of the Tories as an alternative to the Labour government. The alternative they offer is an immediate cut of £18 billion from public services, as opposed to Labour's investment in public services which is cutting deaths from heart disease and cancer, and making Britain's children some of the best educated in Europe.

I challenge Mr Stevens to answer five questions on Mr Howard's plans:

Which schools, hospitals and health centres would be forced to close?

By how much would the law and order budget be cut?

How many police, teachers and doctors would be axed?

Which local transport schemes would be hit and which road repair programmes abandoned?

By how much would vital local services like childcare facilities, nursery education and street cleaning be affected?

Steve Foxcroft

Devizes Constituency Labour Party