IT IS a deplorable state of affairs if 30,000 jobs engaged in the production of Trident submarines are the only ones in Britain’s once extensive manufacturing economy that MPs are prepared to defend, especially as the defence industry is arguably wasteful and inflationary.

Economics has a long-time, overlooked problem of deeming all production, which people and governments are willing to buy, to be wealth creation and of positive value, even when some of it is contrary to the individual or common good and the furtherance of prosperity for everyone.

It is an aberration to measure production that results in adversity as equal to production that results in prosperity – a practice that can be calculated to devalue the money used as the measure, and to be a cause of price inflation in the necessities of life.

GEOFF NAYLOR

Winchester