Sir, - Nicholas Rhea shows his ignorance by describing the Government as Socialist. Would that it were!

The Blair/Brown axis has pursued a Thatcherite economic agenda since New Labour took office in 1997. Because of this we now find ourselves not immune to boom and bust as has been claimed throughout but, because of a vastly overhyped economy based on ridiculously over-inflated house prices and 125 per cent mortgages, we are now the worst victims of the inevitable credit crunch, going into recession and projected to be the only country in Europe to fail to register growth this year.

For many years after the Second World War, necessary controls, with sensible lending, ensured that mortgages were based on what could reasonably expected to be paid. The Tory type light touch regulation' (remember Michael Heseltine's bonfire of controls) has inevitably led to disaster.

We, through fighting tooth and nail for concessions in the excellent European social contract, and boasting about our flexible labour market' (meaning low wages) have, shamefully, some of the relatively worse paid and poorest protected workers in the EU. We have privatised industries where profits are vast and those at the top pay themselves obscene salaries, and many of which companies, particularly in respect of water and energy, are now wholly foreign owned.

The gap between the highest paid and the bottom rung gets bigger, year on year. We have more people below the poverty line than at any point since the 1930s. The "greed is good" creed created by Mrs Thatcher has been continued by these crypto-tories. They make no effort to tax the rich at a reasonable level.

If only we could emulate those many European countries where wealth is distributed more fairly and, ipso facto, social cohesion is much greater.

JOHN SEVERS Hastings Avenue, Durham City