Black market rules

TheRe seems to be a belief among my French relatives Britain is the renegade 51st American state, devoid of rules, incapable of sticking to any ‘agreement’, reliant on an enormous black economy with a ‘bouffon débraillé’ (scruffy clown) in no 10.

But at least they don’t repeat the nonsense that migrants are attracted by our benefits system – it’s less generous than the French.

As regards the black economy, when I read economics in the 1960s the Inland Revenue estimate was 8 per cent of gdP which fell to 5 per cent after Thatcher’s direct tax cuts reduced the incentive to opt out.

According to the IMF it’s risen since that era and is now over 10 per cent of gdP but that’s less than half the european average with France, germany, Scandinavia and the usual suspects in the east well ahead.

It seems pettifogging regulations are as bad as high taxes in promoting an informal economy. DR JOHN CAMERON, St Andrews,

Fife.