"I KNOW you believe you understand what you think I said, but I am not sure you realise that what you heard is not what I meant"!

If you play this game for long enough you become an expert; it is called being a politician.

For most of my life politicians have been incredibly careless, from messing about in the 1930s when war was obvious, to Tony Blair's Government today with its ramshackle health service, deteriorating roads, dilapidated rail system, and a disappearing though once mighty fishing industry and agricultural infrastructure.

And look at education, where the organisation is both ill-disciplined and appalling, and where pupils lack basic skills in reading, writing and arithmetic. Remember those?

Unqualified teachers are employed to paper over the "shortage" cracks and, even though they knew about it a year ago, the Government has failed to properly check on the backgrounds of people working with children.

The collective incompetence of our political leaders is indescribable.

S. I. MADERS,

Prestwich.