SORRY Mr Denham but your letter printed in the Echo December 11 was a clear case of party before people. You do not have to be a Tory to see the disadvantages that the Barnet formula is bringing to the ordinary citizens of Southampton, (where we unfortunately have our own north/south divide due to the partisan efforts of the local Labour party and an ineffective collection of Lib Dems.) We only have to look at the inequality on a wider scale of the effects of OUR money being sent up north, the fiasco on police pay being the latest example of this, to see that the Labour party nationally is buying votes in their strongholds with our money. It is even possible that this tactic was borrowed from our own local Labour group. Make no mistake about this, nothing can be passed by the Conservative 'administration' in Southampton without the clear collusion of at least one of the other two parties, so to blame the Tories for all that seems to go wrong is yet more party manipulation.

Of course what would be best for Southampton would be for a group of like minded independents to get together and stand as group at local elections. We may then get results that do not rely on dogma and blind ideology.

Alan Kebbell, Southampton