SIR - Confirmation bias is the tendency to interpret information in a way that confirms one’s pre-existing beliefs, while giving disproportionately less consideration to alternative possibilities.
For example, that working and living in Leeds for senior HMRC managers is preferable to doing so in Bradford (‘No going back over tax office closures, minister reveals’, T&A, February 2).
No matter to the HMRC that the ongoing costs in Bradford would be significantly less than Leeds, and in spite of the damage caused to the Bradford economy,
Past Government policy has been to distribute Government jobs to regions – DWP in Longbenton, Passport Office in Liverpool, DVLA in Swansea etc. This has been done to build and sustain economies in the regions by developing skills and employment opportunities outside the regional hotspots. And to reduce cost compared to southern, especially London, locations.
Bradford has both the moral high ground and the business case on this matter. Good luck Philip Davies MP, Cllr Ross-Shaw and the other Bradford MPs in vigorously press-ing this case further to get the Minister to indeed “go back on a decision” that was made, it seems, before anybody has done the sums.
Denis Spence, Mitchell Close, Idle
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