I am disappointed that Sandra Harvey should use the pages of your newspaper to perpetuate the myth that it was Labour’s financial recklessness that lead to the increase in national debt and the totally unnecessary nine years of austerity inflicted on us by Tory governments that have done so much to damage the social fabric of the UK.

It was indeed Gordon Brown’s action to mitigate the damage caused by the $3.1 trillion of US toxic assets that protected our savings, jobs and pensions that led to the increase in debt not his handling of the economy in the previous years.

Your readers might be interested to learn that recent analysis published by the Centre for Economic Policy Research suggests that since the 1980s it is left leaning governments rather than right leaning ones that have shown greater fiscal responsibility and reduced debt to a greater extent. This is particularly so in the US but is also the case across many OECD counties.

There is nothing to fear from voting Labour, your money will be safe with them in charge.

Paul Macer-Wright (Monmouth)