SIR: Mr Carter's recent letter (September 3) suggesting reasons to vote Tory, shows how desperate his party really is. No longer able to offer this country anything new, he has to rely upon statistics which are blatantly untrue.

Conveniently quiet about the boom and bust policies, negative equity, job insecurity and record crime levels, according to him the Tories know how to run a modern economy. Is that why Britain has slumped from 13th to 18th in the world prosperity league? Under his government, Britain has had the lowest average growth rate under any government since the war - Tory or Labour.

The Tories have failed this country despite the massive proceeds received from North Sea oil and privatisation - equivalent to every family in Britain paying the government £8000.

Marc Schmid,

Old Vicarage Mews,

Daisy Hill,

Westhoughton,

Bolton.

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