• MARTIN Plaut rightly offers a list of what he calls the achievements of the Labour government from 1997 to 2010, (Look at Labour’s achievements, July 13).

I believe that most progressive thinkers would recognise these but it’s certainly a great pity that very few of these modest reforms have survived the onslaught of intervening Tory governments.

Blair and Brown failed to make the kind of progressive changes that would have been near impossible to reverse such as the introduction of proportional representation, the abolition of the House of Lords, the proper taxation of private education and the abolition of the 10 tax havens operating in British jurisdiction.

Mr Plaut is also rather selective in his choice of measures enacted by Labour. He might have mentioned that it was the first government to introduce university tuition fees and it lumbered public sector projects with disastrous Private Public Partnerships (PPPs) and Private Finance Initiatives (PFIs).

It increased the prison population by 66 per cent. It privatised air traffic control. It renewed the Trident programme. It sacked 1,000 staff of the Health and Safety Executive and cut the civil legal aid budget from £378m to £210m.

In addition, it presided over an absolute increase in inequality. And, worst of all, it joined hands with George W Bush to launch an illegal war in Iraq causing untold suffering and an estimated death toll of 460,000.

Labour might win the next election but those of us who recognise the need for transformational measures to achieve social justice should not get our hopes too high.

PETER ROBBINS, NW5