SIR: Accusations of sleaze are rich coming from a party with such a proven record of local government corruption and double dealing. Mrs P Ferguson ( Viewpoint, October 17) accuses John Major of telling lies, well Mrs Ferguson has told at least one.

For this year 90,000 people will pay CGT (not 5,000 as Mrs Ferguson says).

When I married, my parents bought out house for us. When in the seventies, under a Labour Government, they wanted to turn the deeds over to us, they found that because of Inheritance Tax it would have meant a large tax demand for me. The property is a two-up, two down terrace worth about £30,000, which hardly makes me one of Mrs Ferguson's elite 5000. A quote from a national newspaper reads: "In France they are already on their knees, thanks to an overvalued currency, Social Security costs mounting to 40 per cent of gross pay, minimum wage legislation and VAT at 20.6 per cent".

If this Government is underfunding the NHS and public services, what were Labour doing in the seventies when Hospital porters decided who had operations, when the dead lay unburied and rubbish was piled high in city streets? The lady should change her reading matter and read facts not propaganda!

D Herdson

Ainsworth Road, Radcliffe

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