Labour's achievements

Courtesy of the Sunday Mirror

Labour's achievements

1. Introduced first National Minimum Wage.

2. NHS waiting lists now shortest since Health Department records began.

3. Massive investment in health care. There are 44,000 more doctors and 89,000 more nurses.

4. Help for pensioners - Winter Fuel Allowance introduced, over-75s given free TV licences, over-60s given free local bus travel, plus pension credit and extension of Second State Pension.

5. Child poverty cut. Half a million children have been lifted out of relative poverty with 550,000 expected to be helped by additional measures already put in place.

6. Help for families. Changes to the tax and benefits system means families with children are on average £1,500 a year better off.

7. The New Deal has helped more than 2.2 million people into work. The Young Persons' Guarantee means that every 18-to 24-year-old out of work for six months has the right to a job or training.

8. Investing in young people. More than 42,000 extra teachers and 212,000 support staff, including 123,000 teaching assistants. Child Trust Funds started.

9. Help in the early years. A right to free nursery places for three- and fouryear-olds, extended to 15 hours a week this year. More than 3,500 Sure Start children's centres opened.

10. Record number in higher education with 2.4 million in post-18 education.

11. Peace in Northern Ireland. After 30 years of violence, the Good Friday agreement heralded peace.

12. Since 1997 overall crime is down 36 per cent, domestic burglary by 54 per cent, vehicle crime by 57 per cent and violent crime by 41 per cent.

13. Police numbers up by almost 17,000 since 1997 with 16,000 Police Community Support Officers.

14. Help for the Third World. Up to 100 per cent of the debt of the world's poorest countries has been cancelled. Overseas aid doubled.

5. Fox hunting banned. The Hunting Act made the hunting with dogs of all wild mammals an offence and banned hare coursing.

16. First ever Climate Change Act. UK's greenhouse gas emissions are now 21 per cent below 1990 levels.

17. Housing boost. More than £20billion invested in bringing social housing up to decent standards.

18. Patients' guarantee. NHS patients will have legally-binding guarantee they can see a cancer specialist within two weeks of referral by a GP.

19. Maternity leave increased and maternity pay up to £106 a week. Paternity leave introduced.

20. The economy. Longest period of sustained low inflation for half a century. Record number of people in work.

Tories' mad plans

1. At a time when the economy is struggling to climb out of recession and needs continued fuelling, they would take billions out this year, putting recovery at risk.

2. Their economic judgment is appalling. They got every call on the recession wrong, including opposing the nationalisation of Northern Rock.

3. Have said they would scrap investment allowances - a "disaster" say manufacturers.

4. Regional Development Agencies would be abolished, even though they provide essential support to businesses in the regions.

5. Every family would be hit with £1,500 tax bill in a June budget to pay for election bribes.

6. Child Tax Credits for families on middle incomes would be scrapped. So would the Child Trust Fund for families earning more than £16,000.

7. Nurseries would be allowed to charge parents supplementary fees.

8. Limit on inheritance tax would be lifted to £1million - a £200,000 tax cut for Britain's 3,000 richest.

9. They want to get rid of the Future Jobs Fund which is helping 200,000 people find work.

10. The guarantee that cancer patients can see a specialist within two weeks would be dumped.

11. The guarantee that no one will wait more than 18 weeks for NHS treatment would be abolished.

12. Schools would not be protected from savage cuts, threatening education standards and Labour's bold schoolbuilding programme.

13. The plan for Free Market schools would take money out of existing ones, as the Conservative leader of Kent County Council has admitted. This would particularly affect struggling schools.

14. Tories refuse to match Labour's guarantee to school-leavers of a place in education or training for every 16- and 17-year-old who wants to stay on.

15. They always think of the demands of City fatcats and business leaders first rather than the needs of ordinary workers.

16. They refuse to commit to protecting frontline investment in policing.

17. Their rejection of linking with mainstream parties in Europe and association with fringe extremists would reduce Britain's influence and hurt British business.

18. The drive to build affordable housing, to rent and buy, which British families desperately need, would be abandoned.

19. The Tories' first priority would be to bring back fox-hunting.

20. They are brutal when it comes to slashing public-sector jobs. Thousands of teachers, doctors, nurses and others performing vital services were sacked when they were last in power.