SIR – To call for entrepreneurial spirit at a time of national and local economic recession is like asking the band on the Titanic to hold their breath and keep playing their instruments, in the hope that the ship can somehow float rather than sink to the bottom of the ocean.

Slashing public expenditure and cutting services and employment can only make the recession worse, yet the Tory Government (and it is a Tory Government – the most reactionary and ideologically-driven one in post-war history) acts as if recovery through the private sector will be automatic and straightforward.

Rather, the local economy will be hit hard, with unemployment on the scale of the early 1980s recession.

If the Council wants to seriously address the scale of the challenge, then it should send the Government an ultimatum – either stop the cuts programme, or we will refuse to set a budget and you will have to run the authority by central diktat.

The Council has an historic responsibility to preserve public services and employment, and it must show the courage to stand up to the Government in order to avoid this looming disaster.

Steven Schofield, Park Crescent, Bradford