SIR – Now that the next General Election is almost a year away, the arguments about what we can and cannot afford for this and that is going to be paramount in our media.

What your readers and the public in general need to know and keep in the forefront of their thinking is this. We are the fifth or at least sixth richest country in the world. We, the UK, have vast investments around the globe bringing in wealth beyond many other nations’ dreams.

This Government’s Cabinet is a collection of the rich who it can be fairly said are concerned mostly about protecting the rich.

If you don’t believe me, consider Vince Cable’s sale of part of Royal Mail which benefited the rich and punished the poor (increasing stamp costs for one).

Mr Cable’s sale cost the ordinary taxpayer £175 million in just one day. This amount of money is only a fraction of the amount the Government has wasted in four years incompetently. Only a very rich country can afford this.

It should be obvious then that MPs in Cabinet have too much money to play with.

A Holdsworth, Woodside Close, Parkway