I AM dismayed by the state the National Health Service (NHS) is getting into.

If this is the best that we can hope for under a Labour Government, then heaven help us under any other administration.

I think the question to be asked is not when will Tony Blair stand down, but when will he call a General Election?

I was one of the former employees of the Funding Agency For Schools in York whom Hugh Bayley came to inform would be made redundant at the beginning of his long term in office.

Now I have to come to terms with the reintroduction of grant-maintained schools by another name.

Does the Government not realise that redundancy has a very real effect on individuals' and families' lives?

Much as I despised Margaret Thatcher's policies, at least she did not masquerade under the pretence of being a party that supposedly cares about the ordinary, under-paid, hard-working people of this country.

Many things the Labour Party (or, should I say, Tony Blair via his "yes" men and women) now propose will have an adverse effect on the lives of the people who once voted for a party they could be proud of.

The opposition must be getting very impatient for a General Election, quite understandably.

Mervyn Hoyland,

White House Drive,

York.

Updated: 09:48 Tuesday, May 23, 2006