ALONG with its "competitors", British Gas increased its prices by around 40 per cent over a one-year period.

The company told us this was brought about because its charges were connected to the price of crude oil, which had risen considerably because of various factors.

Since then the price of oil has plummeted by about 60 per cent to reach a record low. The Government pressed British Gas to lower its prices accordingly and, bowing to pressure, it eventually announced that it would do so. Its bills are to be reduced by 10 per cent.

Now, one doesn't need a degree in mathematics to spot the anomaly here. It's a figure of 30 per cent. I can only assume that British Gas has decided to keep the extra millions as a "windfall" profit.

Only a certain amount can be squeezed back in as investment into a company already dripping with fat, as it is. Some of the remaining millions will no doubt be fed back to delighted shareholders and the rest passed on as bonuses to reward hard-pressed executives.

If real regulation of our privatised utilities had been put in place by the Tories or New Labour, such sharp business practice might result in severe penalties. But we Brits will no doubt shrug, sigh, and accept it again as how things are.

Perhaps we can expect no more in a country where, we now learn, the rich can buy the laws they need to get richer.

Ray Thompson

Exeter

Deep in the mire

WHAT a mess. Unadulterated chaos. Our Government can't afford to see the banks go to the wall in view of the Brown assurance to the public that savings accounts up to £50,000 are protected, so it continues to purloin our money to pump more funds into these self-inflicted ailing institutions which have yet to reintroduce lending so that small businesses remain solvent and housebuyers are not evicted from their homes. And our financial crisis deepens apace.

I read that NatWest (RBS) is about to offer an 11 per cent pay rise to staff from the funds provided by my hard-earned cash. How can they DO that?

My savings accounts will no doubt soon be earning zero interest and I shudder to think what news my financial adviser will break when I have my next annual review of investment bonds. And the cost of food continues to increase... What happened to Prudence Kitten? Did she ever exist, Gordon?

Am I unpatriotic, mean or inconsiderate to feel angry that I have been forced to contribute to helping individuals who for years have lived beyond their means, and in making a gift to the reckless and greedy institutions responsible for the crunch so they might deign to offer me a loan I do not need.

I just hope young people on the threshold of leaving school understand some of the reasons for their inheritance and strive to avoid a recurrence.

Derek Courtnell

Plymouth

Crucial research

I BELIEVE Louise Piddington ("Animals betrayed", January 29) has misrepresented animal research in this country.

She is right to say that 61 per cent of animal research is done without anaesthetic – but this is not due to lack of care, it is rather because the average procedure does not require it.

Most procedures involve nothing more than a simple injection, something we expect at the doctor's without anaesthetic. Anaesthetics are only given to animals if the procedure is expected to cause pain.

The 21 per cent increase in animal research under Labour reflects an increase in science spending of over 50 per cent, meaning that animal research is becoming a small part of overall science spending.

Animal research continues to be crucial in the development of new medicines. Recently it was an important part of the development of the new cervical cancer vaccines.

Tom Holder

Cambridge

Chicken inmates

SO Tory MP Jim Plaice wants every child to visit a farm to better understand farming.

He even suggests that children should adopt an animal (WMN, January 29).

A grand idea. I suggest the children adopt chicken number DK 4572/08a, fourth level up from the floor, in the 25th cage from the end, in row number six, and in shed number eight.

They could even feed chicken DK 4572/08a. Feeding chickens is fun – you exit the shed, find the green start button on the silo full of imported pre-medicated soya, then press it.

Many urban children – and some rural children, apparently – think that eggs are made in factories. Why could that be?

Theo Hopkins

Lifton

Unfair interest rate

LOWER interest rates could not be more unfair. The only beneficiaries are mortgage holders who use the windfall to lower their debt. Businesses are not receiving the credit necessary to function and householders are not spending, so the policy of throwing money at the banks has failed.

I was wrong – another group has benefited from billions of taxpayers' money: the bankers. Savers who have been careful with their money and thought it secure in a bank account now find themselves in difficulty.

I trust people realise the Government's policy is penalising the thrifty by cutting their income now and saddling them with high taxes in the future to enable those who invested unwisely in overpriced property to avoid the consequences of their own foolishness.

On another subject, a fortune could be saved if national and local government offices ceased printing forms and leaflets in such a variety of languages.

William Scott

North Berwick