Sir – Paying our leaders huge salaries and enormous pensions has become necessary to attract ‘the best talent’.

But I can't help noticing that our 'best talent' often refuses to resign when they have overseen a catastrophic muck up.

When these people are in the thick of it they tend to cling on spouting meaningless platitudes until normal people give up any expectation of 'the talent' doing the decent thing.

Surely there's a balance where compensation can attract the right kind of talent?

By this I mean those who, after a giant catastrophe has taken place, have enough honour and integrity to know when to resign from their positions, giving up the rewards and the trappings of power that go with them).

In Oxfordshire it seems we haven't managed that yet.

Chris Shipton, Oxford