Cuts are Labour of love; your letters.

Byline: FIONA PARKER

WHAT a contrast between the leaders of our main political parties - Labour and the Tories.

David Cameron seems to be almost relishing his plans to make cuts in mainline services, whereas Gordon Brown is agonising over them - as he realises just how it will hit hard-up working families.

It will be interesting in the run up to the next General Election to see which leader will have the compassion to decide which services are essential.

As has been proved many times in the past, the Conservatives don't do compassion.

Steven Calrow, Liverpool

THE Prime Minister is being realistic when he says cuts are needed to shrink our pounds 175billion deficit.

Anyone who doesn't believe this is living in cloud cuckoo land. However, he promised that the cuts won't affect vital public services.

Compare this to the Tories who are ready to take an axe to services which the poor and vulnerable rely on.

If Cameron gets into No.10, all the improvements Labour has made over the past decade will be reversed.

Kevin Raymond, Blackpool, Lancs

AT last the PM has come clean saying spending cuts are necessary to get Britain back in the black.

But he also says he won't cut front-line services.

Voters should be warned that if Cameron & Co win the next election, the NHS, pensions and tax credits will all face the chop.

S Joseph Penzance Cornwall

IT took Brown too long to admit he will have to make cuts, but at least he doesn't enjoy it - unlike the opposition.

Tony Smith, S London

INSTEAD of cutting payouts to police and health workers, why doesn't Gordon Brown force bankers to give their bonuses to the Treasury? H Mayall, S London

UNEMPLOYMENT is rising and the bank bail-outs have to be paid for by the taxpayers. The Government absolutely must return to real values and their true allies, the working classes, or inevitably the Tories will get in at the next election and the poor will suffer.

The trade union movement has been leading the fight for jobs, affordable homes and a decent wage, so it was good to see TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber telling it as it is at the TUC Congress. Paul Raybould, Torquay, Devon

LOOKING at the Conservatives' measures to tackle public spending, it is extraordinary that it is the working and middle classes who will have to pay, not the wealthy City boys who caused the meltdown.

In fact with planned cuts in capital gains tax they will be better off.

If the public are silly enough to vote Tory we will have to pay the price as usual.

E Gregory, Ramsgate, Kent

The BIG issue

AT the TUC Congress in Liverpool, Gordon Brown said he faces tough choices to cut the pounds 175billion national debt. However, in contrast to the Tories, he vowed to protect public services and not introduce cuts until the economic recovery is more secure...