Oxfordshire County Council Leader Keith Mitchell asserts, (Issue, Oxford Mail April 8) that the expenditure of the Labour Party on public services like new youth centres, children’s centres, new hospital and school buildings has been responsible for the global financial crisis which we are now facing.

The truth of the matter is that rampant and unregulated capitalism in the financial sector has lead the world to the brink of economic meltdown.

The massive cuts in public expenditure have not, in some of the worse affected counties, lead to recovery but have made the situation worse.

The Lib Dem and Conservative Coalition Government is using excuses, which the vast majority of concerned citizens can see through to make the state smaller.

These are the publicly funded services which the young, the old, the vulnerable, the poor and the sick, to a greater or lesser extent, rely on.

The largest outcry in Oxfordshire has been about the closure of libraries, that specific public protest lead Mr Mitchell to write a personal statement concerning the cuts in libraries.

Never in my 30 years of involvement in local government have I known a council leader forced to make such a statement just weeks after a budget is set.

In the case of the libraries, therefore, public protest has made a difference as no such statements have been made about the Youth Service or care for older people, which are equally being damaged by ideological cuts in public services.

Liz Brighouse, Leader of the Labour Group, Oxfordshire County Council, Oxford