Restrict markets

Bill Jamieson's thoughtful article (13 March) recognises the damages of a further collapse in the financial system. As a former believer in the efficacy of free markets, he is now "split and riven within" and "fearful of the inflationary consequences… of the aftermath of the Great Convulsion".

He does not, however, quite get to the conclusion that the present financial structures which rule us all are no longer fit for purpose, and so need urgently to be replaced; or that we can't afford any longer to run global economies and societies on the basis of "creative destruction" and "irrational exuberance", which his guru Schumpeter used to propound.

We need to move on. Competition has had its day, and co-operation needs to take its place.

What has to be done now (contrary to all that Mr Jamieson has been preaching) is restore the primacy of the public realm, severely restrict the operation of markets and market-orientated ideology and reasoning in our lives, and return to the concept of public service. This is not Utopian thinking. Such a system was achieved in wartime Britain. It is not impossible.

RANDOLPH MURRAY

Rannoch

Perthshire