THE first General Election in which I voted was in 1951 when the Labour Government, elected in 1945, was turned out of office.

This was despite the fact that it received a higher share of the national vote than the incoming Conservative Government – it also received the endorsement of 48.8 per cent of the electorate, at least six per cent more than what Mrs Thatcher, as she then was, obtained in her last General Election in 1987.

The Government, which left office in 1951 was led by Clement Attlee and in its term of office had created the National Health Service, maintained full employment and set about rebuilding a country ravaged by the loss of life and destruction of the Second World War.

Mr Attlee, one of our truly great Prime Ministers, and who was also deputy Prime Minister during the war, died in 1967 and was buried with a modest funeral service attended by 150 people.

Contrast that with the arrangements being made for the funeral of Lady Thatcher!

GORDON CANN, Craigmoor Avenue. Bournemouth