Letter: No offence taken

Sir: 'The idea,' writes Gavyn Davies ('Unstoppable myths of ERM and recession', 4 May), 'that Treasury and Bank officials were so blind that they would have defended the ERM commitment at the expense of a domestic slump is quite simply wrong and offensive.'

Wrong, perhaps: we shall never know, but the stubbornness of a weak Prime Minister defending the one action as Chancellor that brought him into prominence, and probably won him the leadership, should not be underestimated.

But offensive? It may be nave to have believed the Prime Minister when he assured us only days before Black Wednesday that a recovery based on devaluation would be 'fool's gold'. To me, however, it is a new (though interesting) idea that to believe Mr Major's assurances is offensive.

Yours faithfully,

C. M. WALKER

Harrow, Middlesex

4 May