WHILE owners and retailers try to whip up a celebratory mood to mark 25 years of business at The Metro Centre, I would suggest that this kind of retail park represents many of the adverse developments that have warped our economy in the latter part of the 20th Century.

It was ironic that this largest UK shopping centre be sited in one of the UK’s poorest regions, virtually de-industrialised during the Thatcher years.

I remember the opening and a TV interview with a confectioner who had a stall just inside the entrance. He reported brisk trade but said that many customers were paying with credit cards.

I’m not making this up, borrowing money to buy sweets.

What we did see were people buying things they wanted, rather than needed, with money they didn’t have.

Other EU economies with shrewder leaders, particularly Germany, were throwing their efforts and money into manufacturing. Making goods to sell and training future generations of skilled workers.

What a wasted opportunity for the UK. Instead, this new century ushers in not potential prosperity, but an economy marked by growing inequality and unfairness and resembling that of a third world nation.

VJ Connor, Bishop Auckland.