WHILE being generally supportive of my comments on the public ownership of utilities Ian W Thomson (Letters, February 3) condemns me for "fantasy politics" while at the same time highlighting the fact that the reality of Thatcher's "nightmare politics" of privatisation could be reversed if the political will existed to do so.

Iceland and now Greece have shown that major fundamental change can be effected contrary to the wishes and interests of the establishment if you have politicians prepared to follow their hearts rather than their wallets and introduce populist policies. What we have instead is mealy-mouthed shape-shifters who promise changes to benefit systems when it is jobs and decent wages we need.

Never mind economics, in a system so idiotic that central banks can and do conjure money out of thin air yet we have to work for it, let's talk about morality and common decency.

Where is the morality, as in the case of Greece, in a system that feels it acceptable to deliberately condemn 65 per cent of its under-25s to be unemployed?

Where is the morality in the UK, where both major parties are willing to deliberately subject the majority of its citizens to increasing levels of austerity simply to protect bloated and corrupt banking and corporate systems and the elite who indisputably profit from them?

The day I see a politician standing in line at a food bank to receive a hand-out (rather than a photo-opportunity) I will stop being a fantasist.

David J Crawford,

Flat 3/3,

131 Shuna Street,

Glasgow.