WHEN New Labour were known simply as Labour they represented the dreams of generations before them.

The aim of Labour was to improve lives for the poor, eliminate poverty, introduce liveable pensions, create a more equal society and reduce the working week.

Why, after almost ten years of New Labour Government, have none of these dreams materialised?

Instead, they seem to perpetuate and create new nightmares for the very people they were set up to represent.

Shelter claims there are a million children living in Dickensian conditions.

There is a severe shortage of decent housing for thousands of families. Poverty and despair are rife in much of the UK.

Pensioners' income is way down for many compared to the recognised poverty income (especially women).

The rich are getting richer whilst the poor are getting poorer. The working week has not reduced as promised and people are expected to work until they drop.

Not content in forcing adults to work excessive hours, New Labour wants schoolchildren locked up in schools for 50 hours a week, so their parents can juggle up to three jobs a day.

New Labour forces children to provide their biometric data such as fingerprints. They force many children to attend their fourth choice of school.

New Labour demonises and criticises children, rather than providing playing fields and removing poverty.

New Labour makes the lives of children more complicated.

New Labour picks on single parents and the disabled. They allow company pensions to be stolen, but permit fat cats of industry to get fatter.

It seems that Labour councillors in York and the York MP think all this is acceptable, but that just goes to show they are Blairite and New Labour. They surely do not represent the basic principles that forged the Labour Party.

T Scaife, Manor Drive, York.