[IN THE light of recent defections of Labour…]

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IN THE light of recent defections of Labour (I won't call them: "socialist' because they probably don't even know the meaning of the word) MPs and councillors to the SDP, I would like to say something.

Now I'm only a simple minded person with an unclouded belief in true socialism, and far be it from me to question the established methods and rulers of this wonderful democracy we live with, but what the bloody hell is going on?

One of our simple beliefs is that come the day of a local or general election we vote for the party we believe in.

But this is not so. No, suddenly it's all changed.

The truth of the matter has been vividly exposed to us, the poor undeserving voters, by the shiprat antics of defecting coun cillors and MPs who have been waltzing off to the ranks of the fairy tale SDP with positions and seats that they were elected to as Labour representatives.

The other day I had it all explained to me about how uals who hold party views, and if that individual buggers off to another party you can't do a thing about it.

I think that's wrong, I know a lot of people who think it's wrong, and I believe that everyone -save the SDP - thinks it's wrong.

I think that when someone, i.e. an MP, defects from the party that they were elected as a representative from, then that person should be forced to stand down and the seat should be re-contested. If that happened you would soon see how many people are elected because of their winning smiles.

The campaign letters you get through your doors say, 'Vote Labour', , or 'Vote Fogs er yer, hea you not 'Vote Joe party member, then you vote for a party, not for an individual.

I don't know what has to be done to change it, but I know it must be changed. There are hundreds of thousands of Labour voters who have been sold out by yellow, dream-chasing defectors to the Silly Dreams Party.

MATTHEW MeCal'ys. Basingstoke ska epidemic has come to an end, with the news that the Speci: * have split up.

The Specials were the best and most popular twotone group. Their music is a congenial, bewitching mixture of black and white rhythms. It was a decisive break from the worn-out punk delirium from two years before, and yet another jolt to the crass commercialism of the official industry.

The group made two albums, both massive successes, and about ten singles, the best selling being "Too much too young and Ghosttown.

Too Much, Too Young was an acid attack on getting caught in the marriage

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you, in fact, can't vote for a party, but vote for individ-