Sir, – The headlines of our daily papers have all been about FIFA’s alleged corruption and incompetence. We are also told that those in charge of FIFA have not got the ability to detect if there is anything wrong and, furthermore, they have not got the ability to put it right.

This is very similar to many of the failures of Richmondshire District Council. For many years I have been asking how it was that the council took six months to upgrade properties in Gayle when it had told tenants that the work would be completed in six days. The council’s 29 page report into what went wrong was damming, but all the council said was: “We did nothing wrong.” This simple statement was accepted by the former council leader, John Blackie, as well as by our then MP, William Hague.

Later when the council had to pay more than £500,000 in compensation to a care worker for unfair dismissal, no action was taken either by the council or our MP.

No private company could afford to employ managers that worked in this manner. No councillor, political party or MP will answer my simple questions and I certainly could not vote for anyone who accepted such incompetence. If our MPs cannot resolve things like this, then how can we have the confidence that they can debate and resolve the major international problems?

I am still awaiting for a detailed reply from someone!

Brian Tyldesley, Middleham.