SIR – Your correspondent Jason Smith is spot-on regarding his comments on tax. It is just a matter of common sense.

It is not only the amount any government collects but the projects on which it is spent. If you are ‘hard up’, as we clearly are, you cannot afford to throw money away on corrupt foreign regimes, European bureaucracy and involvement in the tribal conflicts of the Middle East, not to mention bailing out the banking big-wigs.

Have those in power forgotten the value of being prudent? If so it can only get worse.

‘When will they ever learn, You can’t spend more than you earn.’

Mrs Pamela B McCallum, Albert Street, Thornton