SIR – I hate to disillusion John Hall (Letters, March 17) but the selective amnesia is his, not mine.

He has clearly forgotten that in 2006 George Osborne, when addressing the Conservative Party conference, said of Gordon Brown: “In an age of greater choice, he offers more overbearing control; in an age of greater freedom, he gives us more interference... In short, in an age that demands a light touch, he offers that clunking fist.”

That was just one quote from Mr Osborne’s repertoire of comments on the need for light touch regulation which he has conveniently put to one side as the banking sector has been submerged in a series of scandals from money laundering, through tax evasion to market manipulation.

Perhaps Gordon Brown was not hard enough on the banks, but without the evidence of incompetent management which only appeared after the financial crisis, the likes of George Osborne would have been fully justified in accusing him of unwarranted interference in one of the most profitable sections of the British economy.

Brian Holmans, Langley Road, Bingley