I am a little surprised by the accusation by Ken Jones (October 30) that my letter (October 17) was an attempt to make political capital. Although there is no secret about my political sympathies, nowhere in my letter did I advocate support of any political party.

What I did was to identify the origin of the credit crunch in the free market economics advocated by the Tories.

That is, of course, a fact the Tories are desperate to conceal.

Tory economics have not changed since the days of Margaret Thatcher.

Shadow Chancellor George Osborne has criticised the Government for using public money to fight the credit crunch.

In effect, he is saying that he would have sat back, done nothing, and left people at the mercy of the market.

I agree that the Government should have acted sooner to curb the excesses of free market economics.

However, that criticism has a hollow ring, coming from a Tory Party that not only has no policies to protect people from the credit crunch, but actively believes (George Osborne, again) that it is a proper and acceptable function of the free market to make large sums of money out of the misery of others.

CHRIS ROBINS Kidlington Parish Councillor, Foxdown Close