GREAT Britain was forced to go cap in hand to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a bail-out loan in 1976. That this is still vividly recalled in current political debate is testament to the scale of the trauma.

IMF loans exist to help economies with nowhere else to turn; they are not uncommon in the Third World, but for a modern Western country to need such help is seen as the ultimate admission of economic failure.

For this reason we should all be extremely concerned at the recent mutterings from government ministers. Business Secretary Lord Mandelson, in particular, has turned his attention to spinning the line that seeking IMF help is a normal thing to do.

I have written to HAS before to decry excessive Government borrowing and wasteful spending. This, though, is of a different magnitude. If we are forced to go to the IMF it will be a national embarrassment, setting our international reputation back decades.

It’s no secret I would like to see Labour out at the next General Election, and if we are forced to go begging to the IMF this would make that all the more likely, but for all our sakes I hope it does not have to happen.

James Wharton, Conservative Parliamentary Candidate, Stockton South.

CHRISTOPHER Wardell (HAS, April 4) was entirely correct in bringing to the attention of us all the fact that the “Thatcher thing” is both tired and redundant – she has not held power for almost 20 years.

While she was curing the economic ills, I was busy dancing my legs down to the knees listening to The Smiths.

It is subjective for certain correspondents to throw bottles (metaphorically speaking, of course) at once great leaders in the twilight of their years, if even to avert our attention from the fact that we are being delivered from a once vibrant nation to one now knocking on the door, with every other basket case economy, at the world pawn shop known as the IMF.

Business Secretary Lord Mandelson says there is no “stigma in asking” the IMF for a handout. Worry about that. We have been down this route. Was this country not on the verge of bankruptcy? Was it under Labour?

Can Conservative Party leader David Cameron do what really needs to be done? Will we see any fruit when his Chancellor gets the books – on May 7, 2010?

As his most heartfelt defender, I will go nuclear (again, it’s a metaphor) if he doesn’t.

Des More, Darlington.