I REFER to the the recent headline in the BEN: Boom time for Bolton's leisure trade. It is annoying that manufacturing jobs are still going and, I assume, that the shortfall will be taken up by leisure jobs, according to the article.

In an ideal world, I think everybody would like to work in the leisure "industries" rather than slog it out in manufacturing. I don't know if I am missing something but where will the money come from? Surely there has to be manufacturing to create the money to be spent on leisure! After all, leisure and service "industries" only distribute money, not create it.

In the now rather distant past, I felt proud of the shops sporting British goods and the contribution that I, and many others, made to bring this about. Of course, when we made goods for export we were helping the country, all the more by earning foreign currency. This was necessary just after the war but, surely, is this not the case now?

Any government should make full employment a priority which would mean the end of these silly schemes with Mickey Mouse wages not to mention a certain decimation of crime.

B Howarth

Alexandria Drive, Westhoughton

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