Dear Ed... I find it amazing that Labour supporters have the brass neck to criticize this Coalition government for doing what the last government should have done in office—but were too weak to do it.

I find it strange, having read the letter headed ‘Who got us into this mess, Jim’, that all Labour party supporters are now suffering from amnesia (Advertiser Letters, March 31).

As a working class pensioner, I feel people in my age group with a disability are probably worse off than most.

It was Labour while in power when it was revealed that this country had been taken to the dogs and was now skint. The outgoing Labour chancellor said in a letter to the new incoming goverment, ‘There’s no money left!’ It could not be clearer.

As much as I dislike what this coalition government is doing, I realise they have no alternative and actually admire them for not shirking their responsibilities and taking hard and unpopular decisions that Labour should have taken in their years in office instead of bottling it.

It would have cost us all millions more in interest that we can ill afford if this government had chose to make smaller cuts and tackle this financial disaster in a half-hearted way.

As for the riots in the West end last month—or should I call them protest marches?—I agree the wealthy should pay their way and measures should be in place to stop tax dodgers.

But this has been going on for years, throughout the lifetime of the last Labour government and they chose to do nothing about it.

So where have the protesters been all this time? Why cause havoc now when their political party had years to correct it but did nothing?

I abhor the violence shown at these protest marches. Violence can only turn the people against them who would otherwise support them.

Norman Sampson

Cornshaw Road

Dagenham