Letter: How to cool the consumer boom

Sir: Thanks to the latest interest rate rise ("The fourth mortgage rise under Labour", 8 August), our mortgage repayment will now be pounds 100 per month higher, 100 days after I voted for and celebrated a Labour victory.

I'm not really complaining because I'm sure it is a price worth paying for a better government and a less overheated economy, but to have the same effect on my net disposable monthly income, the Chancellor would have had to increase income tax by about 3p in the pound. Had he done so, the money raised could have gone on education, education, or education, or at least on something other than making foreign holidays cheaper and British exports more expensive.

JOHN DAVIES

London SE24