MARK Brunner ("Wake up and smell the coffee... Tories are on their way", Saturday, March 20) seems a tad confused.

On every issue he mentions that the Conservative Party either agrees with the Labour Government or would simply make the situation worse.

Take the war in Iraq. Whether right or wrong the war was, and still is, supported by the Conservatives and, if anything, our servicemen would be further endangered by the real cuts in the defence budget which the Tories are proposing.

Under Gordon Brown's Budget, defence is receiving a real increase in spending.

So, our health and education services are underfunded? Well, nobody was going to repair the damage of 18 years of Tory neglect overnight but Labour has put record amounts into both.

In Brown's recent Budget alone, he announced an extra £8.1bn by 2008 for education and a 10 per cent rise for health every year until 2008.

The Tories' true attitude to health and education is clear. There certainly is an alternative on some issues, Mr Brunner, and the people of Worcester have more sense than to vote for it.

DR MATT LAMB, Worcester.