SIR – In his critique of me today (Letters, February 8), Ian Parsons needs a brief reply. He cannot understand Brown’s invitation to Thatcher. Well, I am sure it wasn’t for tea and sympathy and he had just announced he would not cancel items in the previous administration’s programme.

He says Brown paid the political price, but who paid the economic price – and what a price? Not he, but the electorate at large. And surely at the time he had read why his pal had invited his hate-figure.

Philip Bird, Nab Wood Terrace, Shipley