The concept of getting new schools and hospitals you couldn't otherwise afford by partnership with private enterprise had some merit, but no one could have guessed New Labour would have extended this concept to sell all the 600 existing Inland Revneue and Customs & Excise freeholds to a set of billionaires in tax havens.

Our country has been stripped of large chunk of its assets and sold off for a fraction of its proper value to a list of mostly know suspects and one must ask why?

The answer can only be money and hiding that money in offshore tax havens.

Richmond housing stock sell off for under 10 per cent of its value, the loss of the ice rink and the selling of planning permissions have all hurt us locally but even so, far worse has been happening as the population is robbed blind.

We want something back, let's start with the ice rink.

R MEACOCK

Richmond

May 30, 2003 10:00