Letter: Tube a key test for Labour

Sir: The problem with New Labour's attempt to think the unthinkable is that it always ends up producing things that the last Tory government thought about and found to be overwhelmingly rejected by the voters on 1 May. If the Tories don't understand yet what happened to them at the election, the same is also true for the Labour Party.

The voters rejected concepts of the market and privatisation in favour of public service and accountability. Thinking the unthinkable when it comes to the Tube should be to raise a levy on business and industry in London to pay for a decent service. After all, business leaders have, often and correctly, argued that the deplorable state of the Tube network costs them money in lost working hours. Now is the time for these people to recognise that they, too, have a wider interest than just immediate profit.

KEITH FLETT

London N17