Coun James Alexander’s praise of Gordon Brown’s actions during the recession brings a smile to my face (Calling it wrong, Letters, March 27). “He would say that, wouldn’t he?”, comes to mind. I would point out that it is less than two years since Gordon Brown was telling us that he had done away with the boom and bust economy. It was Gordon Brown who authorised the sale of all our gold reserves when the price of gold was $250 an ounce a short time before the price rose to almost $1,000 an ounce. It was Gordon Brown who allowed the regulation of banking to drop to almost non-existent levels.

In 1997, the Labour Party took over a sound, thriving economy. In the years that followed, instead of putting a bit away for the rainy days, an old and proven Yorkshire tradition, he spent the lot, borrowed more and left us open to what has followed, namely the biggest recession of all time.

Nor did he have a clue that it was coming. Gordon Brown didn’t cause the recession, but it is his fault that we had little or no defence against it.

Alistair Darling tells us that we are going to feel the pain. One thing is for sure – with their salaries, pensions and allowances the ministers and MPs of the present Government are going to feel it a darn sight less than us at the bottom of the heap.

Spending other people’s money and sending other people’s children to die in senseless wars seem to be the two scenarios in which the present Government excels.

As a floating voter, my priority is not so much to get other parties in but to get the present incumbents out.

Steve Helsdon, Howe Hill Close, Holgate, York.