I APPLAUD Keith Mitchell in joining a direct action group to keep local services operating and wish the group luck in its endeavours.

But I do wish Mr Mitchell’s letters, particularly when writing in his capacity as leader of Oxfordshire County Council, were limited to news of that body and omitted his biased political propaganda.

Keith, our nation is a relatively insignificant pawn in a global financial crisis; a crisis caused by institutions once considered ‘too big to fail’ and largely unsupervised by governments only too happy to accept the easy revenues rolling into their exchequers from easy credit markets.

Ask yourself, would a Conservative government have foreseen that Icelandic banks were not the hotspot for savings their advertisements led us, and some authorities to believe they were? Did Gordon Brown and the Labour government institute and encourage reckless property speculation in Ireland and the Costa del Sol?

What restraining influence would a British Government, of any colour, have exercised over the reckless loans being handed out to people subsequently unable to meet their obligations in America?

True, Mr Brown and the Labour government did little to mitigate the situation here, but they were in power in the midst of the turmoil when it was impossible to assess its extent.

Today, in spite of the better understanding we have of our situation, I see few moves by the coalition to penalise the guilty institutions or to introduce regulation which might avoid finding ourselves in a similar situation again.

BOB REDMAN, Poplar Grove, Kennington