John, whilst I appreciate and agree with most of what you say I would like to clarify my point. I haven't made my decision based on letters from the party; that is just one concern. At the end of the day, so what if there is an election for Deputy Leader, lets face it, Prescott didn't really do much other that p**s people off. My concern is that the next Prime Minister of this country is going to enter office on the say so of a majority backing of MP's within his own party. Mambers don't have a say and currently neither does the country. If Brown and indeed Labour were to do the decent thing then they should call a General Election following the appointment of the new leader. My other areas of contention surround the fact I am currently taxed to the hilt, I get paid well but can't afford a mortgage therefore leaving me no other option than to rent, which as we all know, is dead money!, I drive a car to work and now the government is proposing ANOTHER tax on drivers in addition to extortionate petrol prices and car tax. (Case Study - I had a meeting in Bristol the other day, to use public transport would have meant me leaving the house at 4.15am, use 3 trains and two busses/ taxis giving me an arrival time of 10.45 - if I use the car, which I did, I got there in 2 and a half hours) We pander to the scottish and the welsh by wasting valuable money, which should be going into the NHS or education or ... with a bit of fore thought perhaps... into public transport, on meaningless assemblies. There has been no real shake up on benefits which means that people who don't qualify are still bleeding the state dry and spending my hard earned money on booze, drugs and rockports. They have banned smoking in all public places and now everytime I want a cigarette I have to stand in a bus shelter outside the office; yet if everyone in this country gave up smoking they would be pleading us to start again because of how heavily it's taxed (or maybe they could slap another tax on the motorist to compensate). Finally, whilst I disagree we should withdraw troops from Iraq and indeed agree with the initial action we took, if it was for the said reason of removing a murderous dictator then why have we not gone into Dafur or Zimbabwe??? Why did we not interveen in Rwanda.... do those people not matter?? Essentially, I have grown seriously disillusioned with whats going on and if Gordon Brown does indeed become PM and surrounds himself with the back stabbing cronies that make up the Labour Party these days then I will not be voting for them and I imagine not many other people will either! In answer to your other question I can't think of a single meaningful thing that the Lib Dems have done in Manchester, although I imagine Peter would be happy to fill you in.

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