All my mortgages have been with the Bradford & Bingley Building Society and I appreciated the assistance I was given.

When I did have savings one motive was to support the organisation that helped me. I still have savings accounts, including two for my grandchildren, with the organization.

It is ironic that Santender, a Spanish bank, which was more tightly regulated, is now taking over parts of the demutualised fire sale and is now in charge of my accounts.

Demutualisation was an appeal to greed and the assets of building societies built up over many decades were shared out among the account holders at the time. Although my wife and I voted against demutualisation we did receive shares, which we promptly sold.

Demutualisation and privatisation were implemented by the Conservatives. New Labour has done nothing to stop the trend of selling assets that belonged to the community.

The consequences are that too many aspects of life have been exposed to the market economy. The main sufferers are young people and future generations.

Over 40 years ago, I was able to obtain a 95 per cent mortgage on a three bedroom semi – on my salary alone. Young people today graduate with £15,000 of educational debt and have no such opportunity.

I have no confidence in the Conservatives who sowed the seeds of this crisis. I have no confidence in Gordon Brown who has built a "house of cards economy" and now proposes to borrow billions of pounds to be paid back by our grandchildren.

One surprising aspect of the financial crisis that no mention has been made of is the costly drain of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars on the US and UK economies. Both the governments have been hiding the real cost of these wars, running budget deficits, and thus weakening their ability to deal with the financial crisis.

Balancing the nation's books is no different to balancing one's personal finances, only the numbers are larger. Looking at expenditure, large cuts could be made on so called "defence". Withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan would save billions.

We have troops in other parts of the World which could be brought home. I have yet to find out who our nuclear deterrent is deterring, and would abandon it.

When economic times are tough much of the expenditure on the Olympic games is extravagant, particularly expensive hotel accommodation and chauffeur driven limousines etc. for non-athletes.

Social security and immigration needs looking at. By banning immigration and getting our unemployed into work, we could lower the social security bill. We might get thrown out of the EU but this would save another billion pounds. As the EU cannot produce an unqualified set of accounts I may be wrong.

Care needs to be taken in not cuttinsg back on research and development, maintenance of infrastructure, and anything which will harm our long-term future. The UK has a history of developing good ideas and not backing them.

Finally, efforts should be made to reconstruct building societies and give young people the opportunity to buy their own home, but with severe restriction on use to finance other activities.

Barry Crossland