WEST Devon and Torridge and West Devon people have benefitted enormously under a Labour Government. We have worked hard for local communities, delivered more jobs (unemployment is down 53% in Torridge and West Devon), safer streets and high quality public services are available to all on the basis of need, not on the basis of ability to pay. Today, Britain has the lowest mortgage rates for 40 years, the lowest inflation for 40 years and the lowest unemployment since the 1970s. This has happened under a Labour Government. The Tories would take Britain back to the failed Tory past of recession, sky-high mortgage rates and cuts to public services. If all 27,000 pensioner households in West Devon and Torridge who have benefitted from the raft of measures like winter fuel allowance voted Labour on Thursday May 5, West Devon and Torridge would for the first time in its history elect a Labour MP. If all the 2,050 young people in West Devon and Torridge who have participated on the New Deal scheme (which the Tories propose to scrap) and now have jobs, voted Labour this could really make the difference. When people assess the leaflets dropping through the letterbox I urge them to remember that crime is down and our streets are safer, let?s keep it that way. Since Labour came to office in 1997, NHS waiting lists are down, investment is up, and there are 2,320 more nurses and 696 more doctors caring for patients in South West Peninsula Strategic Health Authority. In September 2004 the total number of teachers in Devon Local Education Authority stood at 5,420. There are now 445 more police officers fighting crime in Devon and Cornwall Police Force than in 1997. When Michael Howard was Home Secretary in the last Tory government, he broke his promise to increase police numbers ? instead he cut police numbers by 1,132. The Tories betrayed Britain?s pensioners when they were last in power. They imposed VAT on fuel and left one in four pensioners in poverty. In 1997, there was no child care guarantee for parents. Now, 10,900 three and four year olds have taken up one of the free part-time nursery education places available in Devon Local Education Authority. When Michael Howard was last in power, the Tories gave hard working families recession, interest rates of 15% and three million unemployed.