TWO HAS correspondents recently described the economic downturn that accompanied the banking crisis as the worst recession in living memory (Has, June 11).

In the UK, compared to the recession of the early Nineties, I find this difficult to believe.

In 1992, I was facing compulsory redundancy in Essex and losing your job was rife. My brother told me that five businesses in his home town of Portsmouth were going bust every week.

When the recent banking crisis occurred, the Labour government took steps to reduce the number of people losing their jobs and homes.

Beyond these shores, in recent years America suffered its worst recession since the Thirties, and an unprecedented number of countries have gone into financial meltdown.

These events occurred while Labour was in power.

However, Labour was only the government of this country.

Jeremy Whiting, Chester Le Street.

THIS government likes to think it is a caring administration. In fact we are a country which is in a worse state than after the Second World War.

We are a country which owns very little, with no bargaining power and a people seeing their currency devalued day-by-day.

We rely on the French and Germans for our gas, electricity and water and our so-called friends, the Arab States, to set the price of our soaring fuel prices.

Now they are going to sell off the postal service – is nothing sacred?.

If things go on as they are, people just will not be able to afford to live.

We as individuals can do nothing to stem the flow and the Government seemingly has no power or lacks the will to fight these price increases.

All the Government wants to do is make cut after cut, which is the easy part.

The hard part is how do you put it back together.

JM Gowland, Heighington.