SIR - A recent YouGov poll showed the Conservatives 12 points ahead of New Labour.

It follows recent press reports that Cameron and Brown are both trying to forge co-operative links with the Liberal Democrats.

This is the precise equivalent of the Chicago Police Department announcing that, in the struggle for control of the city's rackets, the Genovese crime family is 12 city blocks ahead of the Bonanno family, while both are trying to cobble together a deal with the Lucchese family.

But regardless of which Cosa Nostra family controls a given area, all the usual Mafia rackets including, among others, the intimidation, the extortion, the numbers and protection rackets, the all-night drinking and gambling dens, the control of the trade unions and the waste disposal industry and the draconian punishments meted out to all those who can't or won't pay, will continue without interruption.

However, if the inter-family turf wars begin to attract too much attention, the feuding gangs will be brought into line by stern directives issued by the unapproachable and unchallengeable Capo di Capi, Don Corleone, tucked away in his opulently furnished retreat somewhere in an exclusive suburb of Brussels, Illinois.

Noel A Shaw, Thornton Road, Thornton