You report that Blair and Howard are "locking horns on the key public service issues" (The Citizen 23/06/04). Blair wants a new era of "personalised" public services while Howard wants vouchers. Both have talked endlessly of "the right to choose", but choice requires spare capacity; in other words it is less efficient and more expensive as both France and Germany have found.

It is nonsense for Howard or Blair to talk of parents rights to select a state school of their choice. There will always be limits to the number of pupils schools can provide - as we know only too well here in Gloucestershire.

Labour and Tory both want more privatisations and private finance initiatives to make public services more efficient. Yet new research has confirmed what many of us have suspected all along: private sector companies are not more efficient at delivering public services. All they have led to is deep cuts in pay and conditions for workers and large profits for the companies involved.

Howard's vouchers are also a recipe for increased inequalities and massive costs. Any concern for poor patients rings hollow, given his readiness to support this "middle class subsidy", by allowing patients to use the NHS voucher to buy private medical care.

What people want is not more private sector involvement or mythical choices, but a decent local hospital and a decent local school. It is time Blair and Howard heard us.

Martin Whiteside - Green Party Parliamentary Candidate for Stroud Hillside, Claypits Lane, Lypiatt, Stroud, Glos. GL6 7LU