SO Alistair Darling is to call in the banks and give them a good telling-off for not passing on interest rate cuts.

Does he not appreciate nor understand the implications of the current credit crunch? The banks have been as incompetent and irresponsible in loaning money to people who cannot pay it back as the Government is in chucking taxpayers’ cash at anyone who comes into the country (illegally preferred) or wasting it on one of their prize winning “initiatives”.

The economic miracle claimed by Gordon Brown as his own creation was all smoke and mirrors, but you can bet that when it all goes off track he will not be to blame in the slightest.

Perhaps that is the reason to now haul in the banks and deflect some of the continuing criticism away from the Treasury and No 10.

Of course the banks should cut mortgage rates, but they also need to stay afloat, unless Brown and Darling want to have another Northern Rock fiasco to mishandle. How many banks can this bunch nationalise in a given year?

Another way of helping all of us would be to cut taxes. No, not much chance of that; nanny wants to spend our money for us.

When the Government is honest, stops the spin, openly accepts when they have got it wrong, starts to listen to people and allows MPs to vote as their constituents prefer we can take their bleating at the banks – or anyone else – with respect and seriousness.

Gez Sharp

Waterloo