THE cause of the present economic crisis is clear. The bankers pressured the Labour Government to ease regulation, they then invented ever more exotic methods of risking someone else’s money so they could maximise their personal wealth, while the regulators turned a blind eye.

The Government made out we were all better off, even though the money they spent had not been earned, but borrowed. Several MPs themselves got caught up in the culture of maximising personal wealth.

So who has suffered now the magnitude of the problem is becoming clearer. Firstly the Labour Government lost the election as the extent of their incompetence in running the economy became apparent.

Secondly some individual MPs have suffered through the expense scandal, thirdly shareholders of banks have suffered as their shares collapsed, and fourthly the general populace has started to suffer but it will probably get a lot worse before it finally improves.

Some who are coming out without much pain are the people at the top of companies, government departments, councils and even charities, who have paid themselves annual salary increases of 10 to 20 per cent consistently over the past 10 to 15 years and seen bonuses rise from typically 20 per cent of salary to multiples of it. At the same time the greater workforce has seen increases of only a few per cent per annum. Today we see them defending their excessive standard of living and passing all the pain down the hierarchy.

And what about those who were the main cause of the problem – the bankers? They have got off scot free because they are able to force a weak coalition government to take little real action against them, allowing them to pay themselves totally unjustified levels of remuneration. Any talk of a ‘fair’ spread of the suffering is a joke. The present government needs to get a grip of this problem and face down the banks.

The budget talks about rebalancing the economy, but both governments over the past 20+ years have managed the manufacturing sector down severely by neglect, having become enthralled with and blinded by the finance sector, which was not the case to such an extent in USA, Germany or France. It will take many years to rebuild other sectors and in the meanwhile the UK is very vulnerable to another financial ‘accident’.

Stan Jones, Pipers Lane,Great Kingshill.