SIR – The collapse of three major high street retailers in as many days (with 20,000 more candidates for the dole, incidentally) is telling us two things.

Firstly, consumers are changing the way they shop. It seems obvious now that conventional shopping methods are all but finished.

It seems that if consumers shop at all, modern consumers go to supermarkets or out-of-town shopping centres where they can easily park – Bradford planners, please take note.

Secondly, it tells us that Tory free market dogma is working to maximum efficiency just as it was in the 1980s.

Today, precisely as it did then, it is creating mass unemployment, it is causing companies to go crashing into bankruptcy at an unprecedented rate and above all else, it is demonstrating, to all who care to take note, that the only industry the Government are supporting (albeit with our money) is, ironically, the very industry that is forcing these high street retailers down the plughole.

Yes, that’s right, a round of applause for the good old banks.

Christopher Hindle, Osterley Grove, Bradford