BANKS lend to the taxpayer tax money at a rate of interest. Good trick if they can get away with it.

Or: State-funded bank, funded by the taxpayer, to make loans available. Good trick if they can get away with it.

Or: Banks borrow money at interest, lend to other banks, businesses and housebuyers and pay back borrowed money with taxpayers’ money. Good trick if they can get away with it.

Or: Put gun to taxpayers’ head and demand money with menaces. A good trick – and they are getting away with it.

Let them all go bust and into administration. Then, they can be bought cheaply by competent people who will run them properly. The new banks will restart inter-bank lending at sensible levels and the problem will be solved.

Government money spent shoring them up should have been used for new infrastructure projects such as railways, roads, schools and hospitals.

The culture of reckless, selfish, “no such thing as society” greed creating this problem had its genesis in the election of a failed scientist, failed lawyer upstart from Grantham.

B Coates, Darlington.

IN order to make profits the banks have to attract borrowers from households and firms. That money is borrowed by individuals and organisations to finance a wide variety of projects.

At first sight, it appeared that fortunes could be made and bonuses as high as £20m were paid to top bank officials. But, on many occasions, projects were not analysed correctly and they failed. The controls on the financial market were not strong enough to prevent the failure of the system.

The day-to-day banking operations of servicing the viable financial needs of people and businesses should be kept working if the current financial “illness” is going to be cured.

The Government realises that the cure will take time and is taking measures to ensure that remedies are taken up.

When all appears on the up, few people take regard of the dangers of an uncontrolled market system and do not take exception to bonus levels.

A system is required to enable all of us to function financially.

Given that we, as taxpayers, now “own” the banks it would be as well to take the banking system down a more cooperative route.

Bill Morehead, Darlington.

SO, Gordon Brown is going to loan the banks untold billions of our money to keep Britain afloat, a debt our children and grandchildren will have to live with to keep highly-paid bankers in a job.

These are the “not fit for purpose” so-called financial experts who got this great country into this mess. They will still keep their expense accounts and bonuses. The other side of the coin is that when Mr Brown is evicted from No 10, he will be offered bank directorships by the old boy network.

JAH Porteus, Washington, Wearside.