COUNCILLOR Craig McLaughlin, the national debt figures I quoted in my letter to the Reporter (11/1/11) are your figures, bearing your signature in official West Dunbartonshire Council (WDC) reports in the public domain.

There is no "allegedly" about it (Your Letters 25/1/11).

I am not "two different people" and there is no "orchestrated campaign" against you.

The editor will confirm all of my letters are hand-written and impossible to imitate (true or false, Ed?) Councillor McLaughlin claims he had no confidence in Durkin's spoof programme Britain's Trillion Pound Horror Story.

So what was the source of your £4.8 trillion "hidden liabilities" figure?

Did you read it in The Sun?

Depending on whether debts and liabilities contribute towards profits or losses they can be a good thing or a bad thing.

WDC has never turned its back on any private sector business or going concern because it has debts and liabilities.

Indeed, it doesn't even call them that.

They are "credit worthy" or have "good credit ratings." The UK has a Triple AAA Credit Rating because the risk of defaulting on our debts is low and, therefore, the markets expect to profit from that, grow the economy and create employment.

But, like Durkin, Councillor McLaughlin seeks to paint the darkest picture imaginable about "the evils of debt." Especially when the real source of bad debt in the economy was created by the banks.

That "evils of debt" story has been put about by robber barons seeking to profit from the loss of public sector funds, jobs, services and assets.

We are not mushrooms to be kept in the dark and fed your democratic manure.

There is nothing democratic about these cuts which you support with a vengeance.

James Graham Address supplied