SIR: I find it extremely arrogant of this government that, despite their past record, they still claim to be tax cutters by instinct. This is a blatant lie dreamed up by Brian Mawhinney's propaganda machine. It is a fact that the average proportion of national income taken in taxes by the Tories is 37 per cent - under Labour it was 36 per cent. We now pay more in VAT than ever before.

John Major recently regarded raising taxes as immoral. How then does he justify raising them 22 times since 1992, despite promising 'year on year tax cuts'? Is he admitting that his own government is immoral?

We are now being taxed more than ever, but where is this money going? As well as record taxation, £4.3 billion a year received from privatisation and a massive £128 billion from North Sea Oil. Their policies have failed. Public debt has doubled under John Major, investment is lower than in 1979 and Britain has slumped to 18th in the World Prosperity League.

As we lead up to the next election we will again be told that the Tories are tax cutters by instinct. I don't think they have any right to make this claim - do you?

Andrew Page,

Manorfield Close, Bolton.

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