YOUR correspondents have produced a wealth of statistics in commenting on our current government’s performance.

What they do not appear to factor into the equation is the government’s starting point, from a vastly expanded welfare state.

If we need all these subsidies, perhaps we have got things wrong? 
More than half (52 per cent) of the population now take out more than they put in. This leads to long-term debt. It is fine saying we should tax the rich more but rich people and companies are mobile. They get up and go.

Interestingly, there appears to be something of a ceiling to the tax yield on GDP in the UK of 35 per cent.

This means whatever the rate or number of taxes, the government collects roughly the same amount. Anything more leads to resistance or distorts activity.

In contrast, France tolerates around 50 per cent, whereas the USA and Singapore tolerate something rather lower, around 30 per cent or less.

They are probably the most flexible and innovative of economies, i.e. most resilient in a rapidly changing world.

Perhaps we need to look more widely at our own system.

Since the war there has been a general consensus that the top-down centrist state was the best way of organising ourselves.

Given the recent shock votes perhaps we need to recognise that this consensus is breaking down – and perhaps we need to think and do things differently?

D BRADLEY
Kingston St Mary