Can we really believe them? LETTERS to the EDITOR.

THE newly-appointed gover nment minister for the North-West, Phil Woolas, wasted no time in his interview with the local press heaping praises on Liverpool as if it was the centre of the universe and pledged his body and soul for the good of the city, and, according to the report, the man is a bit of a tough nut.

It is the same tough nut who, only a few weeks ago, was publicly and thoroughly out-boxed by a woman, the feisty Joanna Lumley, over the Gurkha veterans' rights to become British citizens. And before he had time to recover from the embarrassment, he was made to fill the shoes of another woman, after their owner, the for mer minister, Beverley Hughes, walked out of Gordon Brown's Cabinet.

While Mr Woolas and his opposite number from the Tories, Chris Grayling, have promised, and expect us to believe, that they would move heaven and earth for Liverpool, they have also declared openly that they are both staunch supporters of Manchester United.

Even without the current public's distrust of politicians, Liverpudlians, who are fervent devotees to their football teams, would sooner believe that a lecture was to be given at the Arena next week on the virtues of western democracy by Osama bin Laden.

Rennie Ku, L8