Simon Jenkins is right that in order for money to start circulating in an economy starved of liquidity, it's the people that should receive the cash from the government, not the banks (Balls is as mesmerised by the bankers as Osborne, 5 June). But it's not about a massive one-off handout, it's about long-term measures such as better wages and pensions. Government should pump money into schools, hospitals and housing. Strong regulation and big government is needed to claw back the money owed by big business. In other words, good old-fashioned socialism. But of course, being an establishment figure, he won't dare use that word. He tries to exonerate Thatcher, but it was her wholesale privatisation and deregulation of the city that got us into this mess in the first place.

Andy Hall

London

• Simon Jenkins's lucid exposé of Ed Balls's adherence to austerity economics also serves to remind us of the corporate capture of our democracy. Ever since the introduction of universal suffrage the ultra-rich and their corporations have spent billions on propaganda, seeking to impose their interests on public policy. The aim has always been to undermine democracy by ensuring mainstream political parties surrender to corporate interests. Balls's capitulation to Tory economic philosophy seems to finalise this. Now that voting has been rendered pointless, it seems to me our focus must be on changing the economic and political system.

Enrico Tortolano

Kingston upon Thames, Surrey

• Simon Jenkins is right to criticise Ed Balls for his speech on Monday; but it is the Labour leadership who should come under scrutiny. Heeding the polls, and made timid by Tory taunts, they seem to have decided that any effort to put the Keynesian case to the British public will be doomed to failure.

But Simon hasn't got his doctor analogy quite right. A more correct comparison can be made by likening the austerity policies now strangling the European economies to a medieval quack bleeding a patient with a fever. The result in both cases may be terminal.

Brian Fullaway

Winchester, Hampshire

• Simon Jenkins calls for quantitative easing to be extended to citizens rather than corporations. I suggest a little tweaking: issue a series of time-limited vouchers rather than money, to avoid hoarding and stimulate circulation, and stipulate that they can only be spent on UK-manufactured goods to guarantee employment. Given enough cash, I'd spend mine on a Moulton bicycle, a decent suit and a stack of records from Britain's excellent indie labels.

Dr Aidan Byrne

Wolverhampton

• Polly Toynbee writes that "[the] Labour party needs a grander vision for re-ordering a deeply disordered status quo" (No big idea. But Labour's iron man could do the trick, 4 June). If you want to rescue the damsel, first you have the slay the dragon. Britain has to accept that financial services don't generate wealth, they redistribute wealth. On the pretension that we are all going to be wealthy tomorrow, we are encouraged to spend everything today. Financial services work by the creation of a debt no one wants to repay. Pensions were sold on the understanding that contributors would receive a pension they could live on. The dream lasted until contributors needed to spend their pensions.

Banks work by transferring wealth from the existing creative force to the upcoming creative force. But since the 70s banks have been transferring wealth from Britain to developing economies. The only source of wealth is creativity and saving. We have to start making more stuff and wasting less of everything. Balls needs to find a phrase that expresses this necessity. He also has to find the words to persuade the electorate that Britain has a future we all need to work for. The alternative is a plethora of single-issue politicians who argue that doing something different constitutes progress.

Martin London

Henllan, Denbighshire

• Ed Balls's much-trailed announcement that he would cap the winter fuel allowance made me wince with embarrassment. Is this going to rally the faithful? Is it going to hurt the rich? Not a chance. The best thing Ed Miliband can do is get rid of Ed Balls. He is tainted with the last disastrous Labour administration that faithfully followed Thatcher's market-driven philosophy.

If the Labour party wants to appeal to the grassroots, it needs to give us some policies that we can feel proud to support. Slapping the rich across the face with a wet fish does nothing for me.

Dr Mark Wilcox

Holmfirth, West Yorkshire

• The rise of Ukip is related to the austerity that working-class people are suffering (Report, 31 May). It is no good blaming racism and xenophobia on the morals of white working-class people who have been ignored by the mainstream political parties and let down in terms of education, health, housing and so on. Under Tony Blair's leadership, the working class was abandoned by Labour, and Ukip are exploiting that. Labour must use its policy review process to include policies in its next manifesto that will win back its core working-class support. Labour nationally should emulate what the party has done in Islington in London, with a fairness agenda that tackles inequality by paying workers the living wage and generally looking after the interests of the least well-off. That is why Labour is on the rise electorally in Islington. Labour should try it nationally.

Gary Heather

London

• Instead of wasting time aping the government, why doesn't Labour simply rebrand as "New Tory"?

Simon Platman

London