On his soap box during the General Election campaign, I heard Jack Straw say a number of times, that the new Blackburn Royal Infirmary was a great example of what New Labour had done for the people of Blackburn.

Now we know the truth.

The cost of the new Blackburn Hospital and upgrades to Burnley Hospital is some £150 million but under the lunatic PFI scheme invented by Gordon Brown and the Labour Government, the full total cost to the taxpayer over the next 25 to 30 years or so, is going to be more than £1 billion.

This is the economics of the mad house.

I wonder why Mr Straw never mentioned this at the time?

Was it, I wonder, because he didn’t want us to know the facts?

Perhaps in his weekly column in this newspaper, he might now like to comment.

I Hall Address supplied