SIR – As a financial economist, now semi-retired, I offer some advice again to our politicians who simply do not understand the real world.

A friend told me he wanted to have his windows replaced. They were really in need of replacement after 30 years. The estimate came in for about £8,000. Ouch! Nasty but just about affordable. But then VAT. Another £1,600.

He is a higher-rate taxpayer but only a middle-management family man, certainly not wealthy. At 40 per cent income tax plus employee National Insurance (a tax by any other name), the real cost to him for the window was another £3,000-plus. So there you have the problem. He wanted to do business on £8,000. The deal to him is an awesome £13,000. No business transacted.

So what do we get for all this tax? Efficient public transport? Schools? Roads? Hospitals? No. What do we see? Health service officials with £600,000 pay-offs. Town Hall executives on salaries most of us only dream about. Public sector broadcasting senior executives paid like star football players.

Will anyone get a grip before the whole country falls into the abyss?

Godfrey Bloom, MEP for Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire