YOUR lead letter of December 20 by T Scaife poses a question, laying as it does all the ills of society at the door of our mish-mash of a government.

I would ask readers to cast their minds back a couple of years when we had a change of government. An incoming minister was shocked to find a note from his New Labour predecessor, to the effect that “the money has all gone”.

It seems that the current regime could do worse than publish this message at regular intervals, just to remind us all of the mess left behind and the attitude of some of those responsible for it.

With all the cash gone, any new government would have to establish a stable economy by whatever means it could.

The siren calls from the left of “borrow it” can only be valid so long as there are lenders prepared to bale out Britain and, as certain EU countries have discovered, this is at an increasing price and not certain.

This lot have many faults but at least they are trying, whereas almost all socialist regimes have failed.

So come off it, Mr Scaife, we have no option but to tighten the national belt and only do what we can afford: a simple motto but somewhat ignored in recent times.

Charles Rushton, Pasture Close, Strensall, York.