IT has been said that history repeats itself, first as tragedy then as farce.

In 1974, after years of miners strikes, three-day weeks and regular power cuts, Ted Heath, with a working Tory majority, called a General Election to establish who ran the country - him or the miners.

He lost and the ensuing Labour government effectively lost control of the country - strikes everywhere, inflation at 25 per cent and a loan from the IMF.

I feel sorry for young people deprived of entry into the Promised Land of free milk and honey, but I would suggest that a brief course in history would show that every socialist government in our history ended in disaster.

A brief course in economics would show why.

A V Martin, Westfield Close, Wigginton, York