AT which point in a litany of despair do you start? Perhaps by asking ourselves some questions.

Will retaining a Labour Council change anything? Will a Labour Government in Westminster be good for Scotland? Is it worthwhile voting at all? Let’s examine the evidence.

Over the years of Labour wielding power how many jobs have been created in Inverclyde? In a district where roads are narrowed to single lane by cycle tracks, movement restricted by a forest of traffic lights and a town centre mummified, how many jobs have been lost? How many statues have been built? How many drive-through outlets with poorly paid jobs have sprung up while refusing small, local cafe owners permission to operate? How much land/ how many harbours have been sold/ leased into private hands? Who did not push for an upgraded college or fight for the name James Watt to be retained?

Who went whole hog on PFI to renew the entire school estate leaving us owning nothing but debt? Who supported the off-loading of council houses to third parties? Who has refused to join the Campaign to Save Inchgreen when Inverclyde needs jobs? Who has a prospective MP who jumps pictorially on every bandwagon but not the Save Inchgreen Campaign to bring jobs to the area? 

Who has joined with private enterprise, using our money to build a new cruise terminal, with no tourist office or revenues returning to the town? Who partnered with an off shore conglomerate to enable more land to be banked for Peel Ports? Who has allowed Greenock Town Hall and Victoria Tower to crumble and the Town of Greenock to fester? Who has set up a new 'venture' with private enterprise Peel Ports, and to what end?

Who allows a Beirut-style building to exist on the corner of the main thoroughfare of Gourock for decades, forcing pedestrians, disabled and prams onto a rutted dangerous main road?

Who in any ward can hold up their hands and say they are satisfied with this Labour Council?

Who thinks it is correct to blame the Scottish Government for everything while taking the glory for projects provided by Scottish Government money?

Who thinks it acceptable to mob a constituency office of any party when such behaviour gives a green light to irresponsible, even dangerous individuals to do the same? 

Will the same type of people do anything for us at UK level?

Remember this, it was a Labour Government who took us into an illegal war. It was a Labour Government who took the Tory energy cap from a three-year review to whatever time suited them, and it was a Labour Government who bailed out the bankers with our money. Iceland jailed them!

If it seems I am pointing the finger only at the Labour Party that is because, as a council, they have had control of our crumbling district for years. Basically that is why it’s crumbling.

In general Inverclyde and the West of Scotland have been poorly served by representatives of all Parties.

In the grand scheme of things we have been let down by every single person who put Party first and people last. Sometimes you have to hit rock bottom to see the way up.

Every representative has to greatly up his/her game if they want our votes and we need some independent-minded individuals coming forward to serve, not to carve a career path.

Before anyone says it, I am 75 years old. Come on the young ones.

Isobel Delussey

Address supplied