I HAVE lived in Warrington more than 60 years now and know full well that it is a Labour-orientated town.

From going to Boteler Grammar School in the 60s I remember how much scorn was put on us that were fortunate enough to go to a grammar school.

I was regularly insulted on the buses by both passengers and conductors just because of that fact.

Now in today’s climate of political correctness that probably would not happen.

My father worked in a factory and my mother was a nurse at Winwick Hospital, so we were not anything aloof.

In fact we were one of the only families in the street not to have a car because my dad hated HP (hire purchase). My grandfather cycled from South Shields to find work, in the 1930s, to support a big family and did so by hard work. He knew that working hard was the only way to survive.

I too came into adulthood with that same feeling. I bought my own house at a 15 per cent mortgage. I bought cars that were eight to 10 years old for a few hundred pounds and managed quite nicely. Today it is mortgages for peanut interest rates and new cars for many.

I suffered redundancy and made my way back into work quickly by looking for work in a bad period, 1983, when factories were closing all over the town. I was always a union member and have been a rep for the Royal College of Nursing.

I look back now and can honestly say that the factory I worked for was destroyed by the unions causing havoc and destroying customer loyalty.

Those customers went elsewhere for their goods and several hundred men and women lost their jobs. I look back now and see that every time we have a Labour Government the country collapses.

It takes a Conservative Government to get it back together.

Yes, sacrifices have to be made in bad times, but if the country picks up and investment is put into manufacturing then we all reap the benefits.

GEORGE MCKIE
Warrington