Solving recession

We SCOTS rarely crave the power mentioned by Burns “to see ourselves as others see us” because their view rarely fits our self-serving mantra of “wha’s like us?”

Now Jin Liqun, chairman of the giant China Investment Corporation, thoughts on our “sloth-inducing” labour laws and our “lavish welfare system” have been reported.

He says that these lie at the root of our economic malaise and until welfare payments are slashed and our restrictive labour laws binned, we will not escape this recession. Jin also makes the preposterous suggestion that “the British people need to work a lot harder, they need to work a lot longer and they must become more innovative”.

China’s 25-year industrial miracle may represent the most sustained and rapid economic transformation since post-war Germany, but no-one here wants to know.

(Dr) JOHN CAMERON

Howard Place

St Andrews, Fife