Rogue traders deserve to be likened to terrorists

I was winded by the breathtaking crassness of JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon's claim that banker-bashing must stop ("Where are the leaders who will reform the world's economy?", Comment). I work in banking. In the same way that not all Muslims are terrorists, not all bankers are crooks. But here's the thing: while the Muslim community has taken positive steps to restore the reputation of its community, big Wall Street bankers (and their kissing cousins in London and Frankfurt) have not and appear to have no intention of doing so.

Yes, Jamie, I have just compared that elite group of overpaid amoral traders to terrorists. They may not have caused physical scarring and loss of limbs, but they certainly have caused the psychological equivalent. Real people have suffered and are still suffering.

Jamie, Richard Fuld and their peers have displayed neither the contrition nor the courage to step outside their billionaire bubbles to right some of the damage their employees have caused. It should be possible to claw back all the bonuses paid out on each of those transactions that contributed to bringing the world's economy to its knees, set up a fund and pay some compensation to the victims of this titanic catastrophe. I hereby challenge you to do the right thing.

Kim Parker


Who wants to bin the bin men?

"The Pickles dilemma: clean streets or angry voters" (Seven Days) suggested that councils face a choice: protect the vulnerable or clean the streets. You are absolutely right that councils face a choice – but that's not it.

The government has protected the money which goes to help vulnerable people, such as the homeless or victims of domestic violence, through the £6.5bn Supporting People programme. On top of that, we're investing £400m in efforts to prevent homelessness. And between them, councils will benefit from £29bn worth of grants this year.

The choice that councils really face is how they will protect all the frontline services on which the public rely. The public will rightly be looking to councils to make savings elsewhere – to clamp down on senior pay, to cut waste, to share services such as HR, finance and IT in order to focus on the frontline. So the choice is actually between keeping top executives on £200,000 a year or paying the bin men.

Grant Shapps

Local government minister

London SW1

I got a kick out of 'boot camp'

In 1949, I was an unwilling conscript, along with thousands of others from all backgrounds, but after two years of an organised, disciplined life, most of us conceded the experience did us more good than harm ("Don't dismiss Michael Gove's boot camps out of hand", Comment).

After square-bashing (the boot camp part of it), I trained as an air radar mechanic. When my time was up, I was given careers advice and a travel pass to attend an interview with British Overseas Airways Corporation, which took me on as a radio improver, a job I would not have secured without my RAF training. So there is a successful precedent for "boot camps", but I think national service is a less emotive name for the idea.

Don Hatton


Don't let little children suffer

I agreed with Mariella Frostrup's advice ("Dear Mariella", Magazine), but not her assumptions about the husband.

I split up from my daughters' father after 10 years of marriage when they were five and seven. Things were bitter and he paid the minimum he could. My new partner helped, which caused resentment. But I never stopped our girls from seeing their father. He is devoted to them and they love him.

Ultimately, we became good friends because we both took our parenting responsibilities seriously.

However rubbish the situation, it's worth recalling the ties that bound at the start and what they produced: your offspring.

Thanks for a great and wise column.

Name and address supplied

Be a sport, R4, and lose cricket

I breathed in the delicious oxygen of Catherine Bennett's comment on the grip sport has on this country ("Forget getting rid of sexism in sport. Let's get rid of sport", Comment).

Will that mean I won't have my enjoyment of Radio 4 interrupted by the drivel that passes for commentary whenever there's a cricket match? Why should drama, politics, science and the news give way to cricket? You'd think we were living in the 1930s when only men, middle-class and brain-dead, made decisions at the BBC.

Dianne Stokes


Apocalypse now

Andrew Rawnsley in his excellent article ("When they say they have no Plan B, you really should believe them") referred to the three horsemen of the economic apocalypse – rising inflation, increasing unemployment and stalling growth. The fourth, despite the all the counter-assurances that "we are all in this together", is expanding inequality.

Jim Durcan

London EC2

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