SIR - Recently Eric Firth had a dig at UKIP, saying we had only mustered 1,000 votes. Well, it is relatively early days.

It took the Labour Party a long time to build up its support. In 1895, I believe, 28 candidates only managed about 44,000 votes nationwide and only had a minority government 28 years later.

Even Ramsay Macdonald did not support the general strike in 1926.

So I don't think Labour, New or Old, can crow about their electoral successes and certainly not the last ten years of Blair and Brown.

Does everybody know that the new UK payment Blair agreed to costs us £115 million net - I repeat net - every day of the year?

Philip Bird, (local secretary, UKIP) Nab Wood Terrace, Shipley