TAX: Is our money being wasted?

I WAS appalled to read the criticism by the current Conservative parliamentary candidate against the minimum wage. Not coming from this area he won t be aware of the many people here who were being paid appalling wages. I remember meeting a lorry driver

I WAS appalled to read the criticism by the current Conservative parliamentary candidate against the minimum wage.

Not coming from this area he won't be aware of the many people here who were being paid appalling wages.

I remember meeting a lorry driver earning £2 an hour, too frightened to complain in case he got the sack; a young man working for a small supermarket being paid £1.45 an hour and land workers being paid £1 an hour to pick lettuce.

The introduction of the minimum wage has been absolutely vital to so many Fenlanders, who were being exploited.

He makes the point that these are testing times for the economy, so what madness exists in Tory controlled Fenland District Council paying its Financial Director £20,000 a year to do his job one day a week from Australia. Will he really be able to motivate and develop his staff from 12,000 miles away?

The Tory County Council has now taken £300,000 OUT of subsidising local transport routes, and the local Tory MP is pleased with spending £7,500 of taxpayers' money, more than half of the annual wage of someone in Fenland, on four months rent in London.

And paying his wife out of our taxes up to £39,000 as his PA.

This government drastically reduced VAT on electricity bills and introduced the Winter Fuel Allowance.

They are also putting a total of £3.7 billion in subsidies into the Post Office Network.

We already pay higher fuel charges than elsewhere. Surely we've had enough of the Tory Spend Spend Spend.

VIRGINIA BUCKNOR

St Martin's Road

Wisbech.