SIR: I think it is shameful that here in the North-west we have the country's highest percentage of 16 to 24 year olds out of work.

Yet, according to the Conservative Parliamentary candidate for Bolton South East, Paul Carter, this country's economy is running at record levels. What figures is he using - the real ones, or those received from Brian Mawhinney's pre-election propaganda machine?

If he had used independent figures then he would have seen that there are now one million fewer jobs since John Major became Prime Minister. This at a time when unemployment is supposed to be going down!!!

If Mr Carter stepped into the real world, he would see that the majority of the jobs created in this so-called booming economy are either part time or temporary - the number of temporary jobs has jumped by nearly a third since the last election. While this might suit some people, I can tell him from experience that a short term temporary contract is not something to feel good about. But then, perhaps I must be imagining it because, according to Ian Lang, this insecurity that I and many others suffer from is just "a state of mind".

Marc Schmid,

Old Vicarage Mews, Daisy Hill, Westhoughton.

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