I READ with interest your letter from Alex Cunningham, Prospective Parliamentary Labour Candidate for Stockton North (HAS, June 6), and nearly fell off my chair laughing.

Of course, it is important to have the right salary packages to attract the best business brains in the world, but does he forget that only recently the Financial Services Authority (FSA) – the government body set up to regulate the financial industry and which is funded by the taxpayer – paid staff bonuses of £19.7m (Echo, June 1)?

Does he not agree that charity begins at home and these people should have the decency to share the pain alongside us and pay back their rewards for failure? I doubt it.

Brian Collins, Spennymoor.