I have no political affiliation whatsoever. I have a very poor opinion of all MPs whichever party they represent. They seem only to represent their parties, themselves or some political dogma.

A perfect example is the hypocrisy with which Anne McIntosh wants to turn up the heat on the Government's handling of the collapse of Railtrack.

Has she no memory of the fact that the railways were privatised the way they were against all advice, and the people who ignored this were members of her own political party?

The way the railways were privatised doomed them to failure from the start. Why does she think my taxes should be given in the form of dividends to shareholders of a company that is not making any money?

Buying shares is a gamble, and if a company fails, the shareholders lose their money.

What did she expect Mr Byers to do, sit back and wait until the whole rail network collapsed?

Anne McIntosh and others should realise that governments do not have any money of their own, it belongs to the people.

So why do they complain when it is spent on public works? They don't appear to complain when public money is shifted into private pockets as in the case of funding the shareholders of Railtrack.

This accounts for low turnouts at elections and why young people today have little or no faith in politics.

They see the hypocrisy of people such as Anne McIntosh and believe it matters not what the people want, only what the politicians wish to give them.

W Elliott,

Kinbrace Road,

Hartlepool.

Updated: 11:07 Wednesday, December 12, 2001