Letter: Bank on it

Sir: So "the Bank of England's Inflation Report provides official confirmation... that interest rates might have to rise again" and "a sharp fall in growth next year [is] very likely," but the good news is that "the fall in the number of unemployment claimants... in October was the smallest for a year and a half" ("Bank reports better inflation outlook", 13 November).

If this is the price of Bank of England control of interest rates and 2.5 per cent inflation many of us with big mortgages on small houses and a social conscience may think it high indeed - and dread the prospect of an even more remote European Central Bank with an even more draconian attitude to inflation. God forbid, but Gordon Brown may yet make a Tory of me.

MARTIN WILLCOX

Sheffield