SIR: The Government has always known there is a link between Crime and unemployment - it has just been politically inconvenient to admit it.

When they came to power in 1979, the Tories knew their economic policies would cause unemployment to soar (by 1983 it had more than tripled). They also knew that the knock-on effect would be civil unrest and escalating crime, so they swiftly expanded police numbers in an attempt to contain a problem of their own making.

As we all know, they failed: many housing estates are now regarded as 'Bandit Country'. Crime has doubled and only one crime in 50 results in a conviction.

Tom Sackville's admission that there is a link between unemployment and crime is a belated attempt to sound reasonable and shows how desperate he must be. It is hard to think of any aspect of British life that his government has not messed up, and he knows it. And he knows that Bolton West knows it. Even hard-core Tory voters must have a dim sense that things are falling apart.

If I were Tom, I would be talking to my friends in the City about a return to commodity trading, because it looks as though Labour's Ruth Kelly will be MP for Bolton West by this time next year.

Nick Hallett

Broom Way, Westhoughton

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