YOUR correspondent Tyler Chinnick 'The wealth gap' (letters, February 27, 2009) may well be right to point to the contribution of neo-liberal economic theory to our present woes (as it contributed to the woes of the Irish during the famine in the nineteenth century).
But such ideology does not justify the neglect of specifically British working-class interests.
There has been no need, for example, to increase the scale of immigration into Britain since 1997, and one wonders whether any politician can have given any thought to the problem of over-population in a densely populated island.
But there can be no doubt that, whatever the theory, policy has been determined in this area as in that of banking, by sheer greed, and the attraction of cheap labour has been the dominant impulse. We are now paying the price for such economic short-sightedness.
There is also a national issue involved. The governments responsible for this disaster are British governments, not English, Scottish, and Welsh governments.
The British may have lost an empire, but they have not yet abandoned imperial habits or thoughts.
Thus you are now recording the deaths of our admirable soldiers in Afghanistan (as previously in Iraq).
There has been no political discussion of the merits of sending our troops to Iraq and Afghanistan, and there is no obvious British or English imperative for them to be there.
It is yet another example of British incompetence and vaingloriousness.
Thus, as he destroys the British economy the present British Prime Minister is saving the world's banking system.
It is a sick joke played out at the expense of British citizens robbed of their incomes, pensions and savings.
Meanwhile, there is no English parliament willing to stand up for specifically English interests.
The English seem to be as stupid at politics as they are at rugby. There is a nationalist issue here, and that is not to be doubted. – Gerald Morgan (Lydbrook School; English Parliamentary Party).