I HOPE Labour supporter Lee Whitbread will forgive me by being less than convinced by his recent article about gun crime. It followed a letter from Home Office minister Tony McNulty. Writing in the Guardian, he seemed most upbeat that there had been no increase in gun crime during the past ten years.

In 1997, Tony Blair promised that Labour would be tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime. Weren't voters entitled to believe that gun crime would go down in the ensuing ten years? I think most people accept that Labour have failed to tackle the fundamentals.We still have a substantial drug culture, a binge drinking culture, a very worrying degree of knife related crime.

What will be Labour's election slogan this time around? Vote for us and things will stay much the same?

COUNCILLOR DAVID HARRISON, New Forest Liberal Democrats.