Letter: For and against the manifesto for national recovery

Sir: There is no reason why a government 'U-turn' need be construed as weakness, and your 10- point plan should include the notion that ministers could admit to being wrong now and then. Why should we expect these mere mortals to be perfect anyway? The best managers in the private sector learn from experience and revise objectives to create positive opportunities. Such an opportunity now exists for Britain.

Good managers also have a longer-term vision of a desirable future state. It is the right time to emphasise the responsibility of government in a modernising Britain to devise policies for industry, transport, energy and the environment based on some revisable notion of where Britain might be in 10 and 20 years' time, ie, well beyond the next election.

Yours sincerely,

MICHAEL CARLEY

Edinburgh