HAVING witnessed, like everyone else, the "melt down" in world financial systems of late, I believe it is the end of the free market economy, championed by Thatcher, Reagan etc. They claimed socialism was dead and that liberal economics were the saviour of the ills of mankind.
It is interesting that prodigies of Thatcherism and Reaganomics, like Bush and his cronies and, to a lesser extent, Brown in the UK, don't mind using state intervention and assets to save their own, and the skins of their banker chums, now things have gone pear-shaped.
It has made me want to vomit this last few weeks when listening to the bleatings of New Labour MPs vilifying the evil bankers and yet again, bounding about the "regulation" word when it comes to the financial sector and fat-cat bonuses. It is a pity they haven't attempted to banish this greed, not need agenda, over the last 11 years. It would appear it's okay to nationalise the banking sector when it is in the proverbial "doggy do." However, when it comes to privatised monopolies, like gas, electricity, railways etc, which are putting millions of ordinary citizens into poverty by fleecing us, they allow these to be run for the benefit of the few.
Joe Public is only fit to pay for the mistakes and greed of these governments and corporate financial institutions. The whole sordid business stinks worse than a sewer full of rats. It's about time all previous state stripped assets we re- nationalised, so this benefits everyone, not just the few.
Shaun Whiteley, Manor Oaks Road, Sheffield S2WHEN all our utilities were sold off and privatised, we were told it would be more competitive and keep prices down. It has been exactly the opposite. We are being bled dry by mostly foreign suppliers, who have to pay their shareholders a good dividend at the expense of the poor of this country.
If you have a pre-payment meter and, this includes mostly pensioners and the poor, you pay on average £118 per year more than people on direct debit.
I wrongly thought I would keep my money in my bank account and keep the interest on that money myself and pay quarterly but, I find I am paying more than those who pay by direct debit in advance. There must be millions of pounds paid in advance that the utility companies are pocketing the interest on. These companies have robbed 5.9 million poor customers of £113 million a month and it should be stopped and this money paid back.
The Government has sold off the nuclear power industry to France so we shall continue to rely on foreigners for our power and pay much more than they charge the native French.
Underneath our feet are millions of tons of coal. Shouldn't we be finding ways of using this in a clean way and ridding ourselves of these blood-sucking, so-called partners in the EU?
Marlene Guest, Sellars Road, Sheffield
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