SIR: Mr Peter Thurnham, MP's endorsement in the Bolton Evening News of the Liberal Democrats in Bolton North East is very welcome, as is the support of all those who have re-thought the politics of the last 17 years and look to a fairer society with a return of a sense and a spirit of community.

Locally, Mr Thurnham is regarded as a diligent MP within the constituency with a special interest in the disabled. I hope to strengthen and enlarge that commitment including also the needs and problems of those who have retired, and the development of education and opportunities for the generations of the future. We cannot tolerate a low wage/low skills society nor one with a wide disparity in earnings between those who control this country through patronage and quangos and the least well off. Such a differential is not seen in the successful capitalist countries of Europe and the Far East. It is to everyone's enlightened self interest that we should protect the environment, rebuild the democratic and productive infrastructure of our society and reverse the growth of an underclass of the deprived at risk of loss of self-esteem, of becoming unemployed and even unemployable, and vulnerable to chronic disease and a breakdown of law and order. I appeal to everyone to make a positive commitment to the Liberal Democrat cause.

Edmund Critchley

Prospective Liberal Democrat

Candidate, Bolton North East

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