SIR – The good ship SS Great Britain was being steered onto the rocks long before the credit crunch rose up from the waves, but Captain Labour chose to ignore the warnings of storms ahead hoping the calm waters would last forever.

How can we expect people who have studied politics or law to understand industry and commerce? Selling our gold reserves at cut-price is one example.

Most of the best Prime Ministers have been Tories – the Duke of Wellington, Benjamin Disraeli, Mrs Thatcher (arguably), and, of course, Winston Churchill.

It continues to puzzle me how anyone with a modicum of intelligence can vote Labour when they leave the economy and finances in a total mess every time they get their hands on the tiller.

John Cawood, Larkfield Road, Harrogate