SIR – I’m not sure what point Alan Holdsworth is trying to make in his letter, (T&A, December 30). He mentions Margaret Thatcher’s “misguided” deregulation of the banks.

That woman was in power over 20 years ago. Labour were in power more recently for 13 years and could have regulated the banks properly, but chose not to.

Labour’s Ed Balls even warned other parties not to call for greater regulation.

Mr Holdsworth blames the coalition for not letting the banks go bust “to teach them a lesson”. The Coalition was not in power then, but Liberal Democrat Vince Cable (pictured), urged Labour to nationalise struggling banks to avoid financial meltdown, which they eventually did.

Sadly, it would not have been the bankers who would have suffered if banks had been allowed to fail, but customers and quite likely other banks and their customers as the contagion spread – the whole economyin fact

John Hall, Pennithorne Avenue, Baildon