SIR – For the last two years Viva! Bradford has been discussing Latin American countries that have avoided austerity during the global finance meltdown. It would seem like a dream if it weren’t for their success.

In spite of their poverty compared to the UK, Cuba has spent twice as much of its GDP as the UK on education. And it was able to send more doctors to Sierra Leone to work on Ebola cases than any other country.

Unemployment in Britain has been well over 5% since 2010. In Ecuador, despite refusing to drill for oil in Amazonian reserves, unemployment has remained under 5%.

The UK government spent £88 billion to promote “outsourcing”, leading to lower wages and loss of pension rights, while in Venezuela outsourcing is illegal, to protect social benefits.

And Latin America spends nothing on nuclear weapons and their development, which in the UK in one year could pay every nurse an extra £1,000 a year, and put £1,000 into every classroom in Britain, not just for that year but for a further 25 years.

Which of our parliamentary candidates from which parties is willing to say that these things should also happen here in Britain?

Ludi Simpson, Chairman, Viva! Bradford, Avondale Crescent, Shipley