EEK after week on your letters page I read well presented and sound arguments for the retaining of essential services in the Forest.

The cuts we are facing are deeply unpopular, but there are those, most significantly members of our district and county councils, who quote the level of debt the country is in and say there is no alternative to making these massive cuts which will threaten the security and well-being of so many people locally and across the country.

Some of us don't agree and think that doing away with public sector jobs and cutting services is about more than just saving money. We believe it is as much about reducing Government responsibility, diminishing the state and creating a largely privatised system of delivering public services.

For a start, the current debt level is not "unprecedented" as we are told. It was higher after the Second World War, a time when the NHS was created and council houses were being built. The debt crisis is quoted by the Northern Public Services Alliance as being the lowest as a proportion of GDP among all the G7 countries. But yes, of course we are in debt and this is not surprising if we consider the massive level of tax which remains unpaid by financiers, big business and wealthy individuals which goes largely unchallenged.

If it is possible to make attempts to rush through legislation like the Public Bodies Bill, currently threatening our Forests, why not devise a Bill to tackle tax loopholes and push that through Parliament. Big business views tax as something to be "managed" rather than paid and uses the technique of moving profits out of the country for tax planning purposes. They use tax accountancy firms to hold their money in tax havens such as Bermuda and Cayman. Recently a new hiding place has emerged. Apparently the picturesque Swiss mountain village of Pfaffikon is now "an incubator for hedge funds'. Their business promotion department says: "We are getting a lot of enquiries from the UK." The wealthy are attracted by the low personal tax of just 18 per cent rather than the 50 per cent UK tax levied on earnings of over £150,000 a year. That is less than the standard rate for an ordinary working person. The village now has £62.45 billion of assets under management and one in nine of its 10,000 inhabitants is a millionaire. Further relocations from London are expected.

In 2008 Boots Chemist, which has a 150-year history in Nottingham moved its registered head office, Alliance Boots to Zug, another Swiss tax haven. Ten years ago, Boots Group generally paid about one third of its profits in UK tax, around £120-£150 million each year. Last year, its worldwide profits were £475 million. Researchers admit that it is difficult to see which parts of the company are now making what, but they could say that for the 2010 tax year the company paid just £14 million in tax – a huge difference in revenue. There is a campaign going on at the moment against Boots over this issue but they are one of many household names doing just the same thing. It is estimated that around £123 billion pounds is lost to the Exchequer every year. The strategies for evading tax are endless and well documented. Tax for justice is a good internet source.

Cameron and Clegg could look at collecting some of this cash as part of an alternative policy. They might even win a few votes back.

Diana Gash

Coleford