WHILE the mindset of people like Colin T Mortimer (HAS, Jan 16) exists this country will always be a nation of very rich and very poor.

The financial crisis we are suffering originated in the US – Mr Mortimer’s Valhalla no doubt – where people made their bonuses by lending money. The more they lent, the more they made so it paid them not to check too closely into the value of the property or the ability of the borrower to repay.

Once they had their bonus they did not have to pay it back if the lender defaulted. These loans were lumped together by people who also made huge bonuses and sold on to unsuspecting banks who had no way of knowing the lack of real assets.

It was Gordon Brown who prevented the banks collapsing and our savings disappearing.

God help us if the Tories had been in power and let the banks sink or swim, as they did with British industry in the Eighties.

Tom Cooper, Durham City.