REALISING that Godfrey Bloom has based his career on the theory that “no publicity is bad publicity”, I do not usually respond to his periodic meanderings (Letters, June 1).

But his attack on those he purports to represent requires a reminder to the people silly enough to support him that this individual believes most of us are the cause of the country’s apparent plight.

I know of no one in Yorkshire who does not benefit from the welfare state or public sector in one form or another. Whether this is as a benefit recipient, a parent, a child, a senior citizen, a user of the NHS, etc.

Some years ago it was leaked that no one could be found who would audit Euro MPs’ expenses because of the number of unexplained discrepancies. What a pity the media did not jump on that bandwagon – in my opnion, the findings on Westminster expenses claims would have paled into insignificance.

In the meantime, lowly paid employees in the public sector with an average salary of £13,000 have to suffer the comments of an individual who should be old enough to know better.

Liz Edge, Parkside Close, York.

• “IF YOU do not work in the private sector... you are part of the problem, not the solution” says Godfrey Bloom. It was, of course, bankers and other financial leaders in the sainted private sector who drove the economy off a cliff, both here and there.

As the US presidential campaign begins, the mantra on the right is that we must look forward and not back. That’s what I would say if I were carrying the right wing’s baggage.

There is a strong possibility that Sarah Palin or some other right-wing nut will sell this line to the electorate, in which case I expect that in 2014 we will suffer the same swindle as Britain is now experiencing: a punitive attack on the “lower orders” who did not vote for the right, while the malefactors get away with their past abuses and design new ones.

Much as I dislike his policies, I do have a grudging admiration for David Cameron’s timing. He has launched his austerity programme quickly enough to ensure that the last government gets all the blame, not just for the crash but also for the results of Cameron’s ‘solutions’.

Brian A Jones, Clinton Street, Brooklyn, New York.