I sympathise with Walter Brooks (Bury Times, July 19) and his comments on the staging of the nurses' pay rise.

Throughout the history of the NHS, nurses have never been fairly rewarded, but the Pay Review body was supposed to put this right.

However, successive governments have quoted fear of inflation as the reason for cutting the awards.

Strange, isn't it, that MPs never express fear of inflation when they vote themselves considerably higher rises in pay, expenses', or large injections of money into their very generous pension scheme?

JEAN M PURDY, Park Avenue, Radcliffe