Readers have been responding to a letter which pointed the finger at a former Prime Minister for the country's ills.

The letter, by Miss S M Towers, from Wigton, blamed Tony Blair for the recent HGV driver shortage.

She particularly took aim at his attempt to get 50 per cent of young people into further education.

News & Star readers took to the publication's Facebook page to express their views.

Many showed their dislike for Mr Blair.

Keith Cartwright called the former Labour leader a "warmonger", referring to the UK's invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Demis Selmes agreed with Mr Cartwright, calling the former PM a "war criminal" and saying that he was responsible for illegally invading a country and knowingly slaughtering over a million innocent people including women and children."

Stuart Millar agreed.

He said: "[Blair] should be in prison."

Mark Kendall called Mr Blair "The weapon of mass destruction."

Others defended the man who was Prime Minister for 10 years.

Egils Zivtins said: "What utter tosh. If Blair did do something wrong then why haven't the Tories put it right in the last eleven years?

"And the general principle of a good education for everybody is a good one, it's only 3 years, so plenty of time to pursue a career as a HGV driver etc.

"This is just another excuse for the catastrophe that is brexit. We are an ageing population, we don't have enough workers.

"Freedom of movement was tailor made to solve that problem at a stroke, and it was working until xenophobia took over.

"So blame brexit, blame the Tories and nobody else. You were shafted by them."

Bob Lowes added: "What a load of crap."

Ian Green said: "The Tony Blair from 5 prime ministers ago? Give over."

While Nic Barnes added: "It takes 50 years to undo the trauma of a labour government."