PHIL Ashcroft, the aspirant Tory candidate for Hulton Park, accuses the present Government of transferring resources from Tory-voting authorities to Labour ones (Letters, March 10).

A gift for mild hypocrisy is a necessary skill for any budding politician. But some of us have long memories.

When I first became involved in local government, in or about 1972, well over 50 per cent of our total local spend came in the form of Rate Support Grant from central government, and it was a generally accepted principle that the better off parts of the country, notably the Tory-voting South-east, should give a bit more in order to help up the worn-out industrial areas of northern England which had helped build their prosperity. What might be called the Robin Hood principle of political economy.

Then came Thatcher, and in the early 1980s it was a regular experience for the then new Labour local administration to hold our breath at Budget time, until we found out what new adjustment successive Tory governments would make to the complicated formulae which determined the amount of revenue support we would receive. And guess what? Every year, they found a new way of diverting money away from us, and towards their friends in the Home Counties.

If the present Government is doing its bit to reverse that trend, it is long overdue, and no less than we, and our electors, deserve. The correspondent should learn a little history. He might then come to take a more critical view to the things that drop off the end of the Central Office fax machine.

Peter Johnston

Kendal Road

Bolton