SIR – In response to John Hall (Letters, January 4) I regret his first mistake is to make the absurd suggestion that Ed Balls is a socialist!

In the same issue, Ian Parsons correctly pointed out that the only socialist government this country have ever had had, was in office following then Second World War.

John Hall goes on to suggest that the coalition will get there in the end. Sadly, I think the end may well be nearer than he and the coalition realises.

I honestly believe that the time for party politics has run out. We now need a three-party emergency coalition to act as simple enablers to a Government economic committee (made up of leading economists – with no vested interests!).

The coalition should be in place (without elections) until the Government’s finances are brought under control and banks have been put firmly back in their correct place.

The alternative, my dear friends, is too frightening to even contemplate.

Christopher Hindle, Osterly Grove, Bradford