Letter: Budget cuts

Public sector cuts announced in the Chancellor's emergency Budget will be necessarily severe (your reports), but the economy can't support this disproportionate, non-productive imbalance. Many local government posts are invented non-jobs. Who needs dance development officers or environmental drama therapists?

Strict supervision is needed in framing employment contracts to end scandals like the cost of settling the departure of Shetland Islands Council's chief executive – after less than a year in post.

However, public sector extravagance extends beyond local level to Westminster and on to the European Union. We can't afford all this government, and one immediate economy should be the abolition of the House of Lords. This should be replaced by a committee charged with ensuring that proposed bills comply with national and international law.

There should be no severance payment to ministers standing down from their posts, while ministerial salary elements should be halved or removed altogether, making the positions honorary and open to application rather than appointment.

I find no reports of overall economy proposed by the EU parliament, unquestionably the greatest source of wasteful extravagance. We should take the lead by cutting our own contribution in half and, should Brussels object, secede altogether.

ROBERT DOW

Ormiston Road

Tranent, East Lothian