SIR – Happy new year to the T&A staff and readers and to my socialist friend Christopher Hindle, who still fails to understand the current economic and political situation – or possibly won’t understand! (Letters, January 1).

You can’t change the past, Chris. The economic crisis was caused by the banks inasmuch as they were allowed to by lax (Labour) Government regulation. You might not accept this, but it is nevertheless a fact. Indeed Labour’s Ed Balls famously told other parties to keep away from calling for increased regulation.

I am happy to explain why the Coalition hasn’t stopped Labour’s poorly-regulated juggernaut – yet. That takes time. Government has said that it will take most of the current Parliament just to stop debt from growing.

You can sneer at Coalition efforts along with your socialist friends, and we might all think that there are other ways of dealing with the crisis, but I don’t think we need lessons from those who presided over the mess in the first place.

John Hall, Pennithorne Avenue, Shipley