Tony Blair may plead with us to "remember the past six years rather than the past six days" but I fear he will be disappointed.

This is not to deny there have been numerous welcome innovations in that time and may well be others before he goes but gratitude is not the name of the game.

All of the beneficial improvements, such as a minimum wage, full employment and billions spent on the social services are ours by "right" - we have every right to them. There's nothing to be grateful for.

If we have one car, we have every right to have two. And just as it's pointless for parents to demand their children be grateful for all the things the parents were denied when they were young, so it is futile for the Government to expect people to be grateful for the improvements in their standard of living.

All these things are due to us by "right". Why? Because we are still Thatcher's children.

-RG Jenkins, Hove