MY letter printed in the BEN on October 12, made no personal attack on Albert Hornby.

In his latest letter, he fails even to mention the facts I put to him on the cost of fuel, the escalator, and VAT etc. Obviously he was not listening to me, yet accuses the present Government of ignoring the people's wishes.

I still believe that haulage has a 'case for review', but I have no sympathy with mob rule, the recent stand of the 'Country Alliance' with placards 'no hunting', 'no fuel', and the farmers crying poverty yet again. This Government, he insists, is not listening to the people and what they want. They listen, but the cost of the last administration's terrible mistakes have to be rectified, which means Gordon Brown has to be prudent.

The greatest 'non-listening catastrophe', the BSE crisis, has just been revealed. The cover-up, the conspiracy of silence, all for the sake of profit. This is legacy of the Thatcher and Major Governments, resulting in the ruin of the beef market, but, much worse than that, the terrible illness and death to some who consumed meat from contaminated ground-up dead animals fed to cattle. Several scientists pointed out the danger of such practise, but were accused of scaremongering and damaging the beef market. The Tory Government not only would not listen, but continued to insist all was well. Did the farmers of that period listen?

The present Government is to fund a 'care policy' for the victims of the deadly CJD illness and their helpers.

I remind A Hornby that £5 billion of taxpayers' money is being used to improve the privatised railway companies set up by the late Tory Government. I always thought, as Thatcher said, 'companies should stand on their own two feet'. The Treasury is not a bottomless pit, the Blair administers have to rectify the mistakes of the 'non-listening' last Government at considerable cost.

I congratulate Mr A Hornby on his academic achievements, but common sense has its place in every equation. I am reminded of the person who was multilingual and spoke nonsense in five difference languages.

John S L Evans

Howard Avenue

Deane, Bolton