I REFER to the Ruth Kelly MP letter: Fairness culture (BEN, February 6). Do middle class career politicians like Ruth Kelly, seriously expect us to believe that a few cosmetic reforms will make a blind bit of difference in producing "the new culture of partnership at work"?

The Labour Party revealed their true colours straight away, with attacks on sections of the working class (the sick, those on benefits, single parents etc). Now, with the New Deal taking shape, the lurch from Britain's state welfarism to a US style work welfarism is inevitable.

New Labour's New Deal will see employers (often huge multinational corporations) getting paid by the state £75 a week to employ those on benefits. Not only will this mean companies making a profit out of slave labour, but it will also be used as a stick to beat other employees into accepting their lot.

The jobs will provide no real training, and yet companies can claim £750 "training fee" per employee. The companies principally involved rarely recognise unions, have appalling safety records and have only low paid work on offer.

No one in their right mind expected the Labour Party to make a scrap of difference, although their vigour in attacking the working class has been a surprise to many.

The New Deal is about shifting the burden from the state and finishing Thatcher's job of putting blame on the individual. The Labour Party must be made to recognise the anger that the powerless and disenfranchised feel is directed at them.

Mr T Lees

Cameron Street, Bolton

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