SIR - It's ironic that the traditional working class party, namely the Labour Party, are escalating the death of the local pub by means of obscene stealth taxes on beer in the guise of rectifying social problems.

In the meantime, bargain booze shops and supermarkets get the local youth drunk on a fraction of the cost that pubs have to charge, and the problem binge drinker continues unabated.

Only the present government can think of this one; steeped in nanny state repression, while bagging their lucrative stealth taxes at the expense of the local community pub.

John Prescott has his food bill paid, Blair his television licence paid, while the working man is priced out of his local pub during it's last days of its existence.

Labour MP Gerry Sutcliffe is obviously perturbed about it but soon jumps into line when there is a suggestion espoused that he agrees with the workingman!

When a traditional local pub is well run, and I rate the Corn Dolly, Jacob's Well and Fighting Cock on that score, there is little trouble, and certainly the chav bingers are not here.

These pubs raise money for charity, and are a refuge for good conversation away from the insipid Reality TV that infests the nation.

One day we will ask the demise of these pubs were allowed to happen, and we will cite Darling and Brown as the ones who have blood on their hands. No wonder the former is banned from some pubs.

Gerald Knowles, Bradford Road, Idle