A professor writes

Professor Duguid's letters are always worth reading and today's is no exception:

The growing drain of educated people into the public sector has starved businesses of educated staff. The attraction of secure employment and pensions in the many jobs available in the public sector leads too many pupils and school leavers to choose pleasant courses of study, rather than practical training or hard studies, such as mathematics, physics and engineering, much needed for jobs in businesses.

This is absolutely correct and hopefully voters will rise up in anger at the growing difference between pension provision in the private and public sectors.

When the professor writes this I have to disagree:

Tax revenue which has been spent on public services and administration has, therefore, been made unavailable for lessening the heavy burden of taxes and business rates on private businesses.

I can see what the professor is getting at but we don't need "tax revenues" to reduce burdens on business - we just need to stop taxing and regulating altogether. The last thing we need is some John Redwood-style Minister for Deregulation.