SIR – In his letter of January 14, Mr Bird boldly suggests that the majority of the British public support Cameron’s ‘protecting the bankers’ from Sarkozy and Merkel’s gambit.

Well, although bashing ‘Johnny Foreigner’ is usually a formula for success, I’m afraid this is complete nonsense perpetrated by the right-wing press to justify Cameron’s pathetic, hissy-fit exit from the European summit.

Does anyone need reminding that this Europhobic stance is not only very yesterday, but is also precisely the attitude that the Common Market was set up to eradicate in the first place?

For far too long, the Little Englander, Conservative establishment in this country have handed down a casual, mealy-mouthed, and frankly xenophobic position with regard to Europe.

Yet, to a man, their politicians always duck the prospect of a referendum on the subject. They may be xenophobic – but they’re not totally stupid.

Mr Bird also asks how I would replace capitalism. Well, I wouldn’t.

I would ditch the monetarist economic policies which have caused financial Armageddon and slowly return to a productive, manufacture-based, Keynesian, economic position, much like Germany.

I would offer to nationalise banks, trading banks, building societies and insurance companies, and those who didn’t like it could get out.

Christopher Hindle, Osterley Grove, Bradford