The TV debates between the party leaders, and local hustings, have made it very clear that, in spite of some differences, there is fundamental agreement between all three mainstream parties about the main issue of the general election – the economic and financial crisis.

They are agreed that there is no alternative to devastating cuts in public services and most people’s standards of living.

They might fall out over which area (if any) of government expenditure should be protected from the axe, but nobody will stand up and say that the whole debate is a fraud.

There is no need for any cuts.

Back in the 1950s, the level of public sector debt compared to gross domestic product (national income) was about twice what it is today. Nobody talked about the need for emergency programmes of cuts, wage freezes etc.

So why is it happening now?

When the economic crisis broke in autumn 2008, the government handed over £1.4 trillion to the banks to maintain profits and rescue the financial system.

We heard a great deal of criticism of “speculators” from politicians of all stripes and talk of a new era of humility and financial sobriety from the so-called masters of the universe in the City, on Wall Street etc.

But the rich are so arrogant that within a year they plunged back into a new era of bonuses and opulence.

The bankers and others who lend money to governments want to see cuts in public services, higher unemployment and lower living standards.

And the three main parties have, as always, accepted the bosses’ insistence that the cost of the crisis must be paid by the mass of working people.

Fred Lindop, Alexandra Terrace, Swanage