IN my letter I questioned various statements from politicians, claiming the Britain over the last 300 years, was an example of fairness and strong economically and the greatest grouping ever.

I set out their role of exploitation when we had an empire and untold riches for the rich, and at the same time they exploited their own people at home.

I then went on to show how Westminster had sold off all of our assets, oil, coal, steel, electricity, gas, water, Royal Mail, to state a few.

In his letter James Martin claims they were right to sell off assets without any real consent from the public.

He asserts that they saved the Government money. Let’s recap the start of the story.

Westminster allowed the owners of industry to run down the economy and at the end of the Second World War the British economy was at rock bottom, through lack of investment over decades.

The Labour Government decided to invest in major industries, while the rich weren’t prepared to risk their capital, although they did very well from the excessive compensation paid for run down industries.

They also had to invest heavily and very quickly. One example of compensation was unbelievable, in coal mining it was not based on investment but based on reserves of coal still in the ground. So millions of tons that weren’t extracted were paid for even after the pits closed.

If nationalisation hadn’t taken place Britain would have been at rock bottom.

What does James Martin say when Westminster sell off profit making concerns, yes I’m talking about Royal Mail, which was making a profit.

They can’t even do that properly, they under-sold the entire project and the public purse lost out.

The claim is made that the country should thank the Tories who saved the country from financial disaster brought about by world capitalism.

Just who is paying the price with food banks, bedroom tax, breakfast clubs at school, zero hour contracts, savers seeing the value of their money disappearing while bankers make fortunes.

Yes, James welcome to Rip Off Britain (ROB) for short.

It also appears that James thinks that small countries cannot sustain themselves in a financial crisis, such as the one we’re still in.

Has he never heard of small countries, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark, who managed to survive the financial crisis because of their different approach just as Scotland could have. In conclusion is it not annoying that a country much the same size of Scotland has an oil fund valued at £400 billion from their oil and here in this greatest union has squandered all of that rich resource.

If Westminster was a football team they would be relegated to the lower divisions.

As an afterthought, maybe the financial world did just that when they removed the ‘A’ rating resulting in the payment on financing their debt to over £70 billion annually an ever increasing debt of £1.2 trillion. That is one thousand not million but one thousand billion pounds.

Added to this is over £2 trillion of household debt and James Martin wants us to believe that Britain had, under Westminster, ran a strong financial economy.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

It’s a financial nightmare and as a country our national debt clearly shows it. The question is who pays?

WILLIE CLARKE, Navitie Park, Ballingry.