SIR – Oh, how I want to live in the rosey and idyllic world of Mr Boyes (Letters, December 7) What is particularly sad about him rhapsodising over Osborne’s recent Autumn Statement is the fact that it is based on (and I hope he will forgive me when I say) economic naivete on his part.

It is precisely this lack of economic understanding that politicians count on. The ‘green shoots’ Mr Boyes sees is an illusion. Logically, how can it be any other way?

Since Thatcher destroyed our manufacturing base, the UK is essentially a ‘consumer- led’ economy which depends for its very life blood (and growth) on consumer spending. This Government, by any measure, have driven down real wages by as much as ten per cent in some sectors.

In order to inspire consumers to ‘spend for Britain’, Osborne and Carney have deliberately engineered a new housing bubble to con people into thinking things are on the up.

The plan has worked, and ebullient homeowners are now running up loans and maxing the plastic on their artificial equity. Debt, Mr Boyes, which does not solve problems, but intensifies them. As we will see.

Christopher Hindle, Osterley Grove, Bradford