I HAVE realised for many years that it is not the government of the day that runs this country; it is the senior civil servants who are in their jobs for years, regardless of what government is supposedly in power. They proved that recently by paying themselves more than the PM.

After watching the Channel 4 Dispatches programme, entitled How the MoD wastes our billions, it only confirmed to me how these top civil servants and the top brass of the Armed Forces are really in control and can arrogantly take the taxpayers of this country to the cleaners with impunity.

It puzzles me why the national papers do not go after them as they did the MPs and their expenses? Are they the untouchables of our country?

Mrs B Tingate, Darlington.