I NOTED Dave Jones' column relating to Pareto's Principle, whereby a business focuses on the top 20 er cent of its customers.

That law has always applied throughout history, whether in business or government.

Effective management means that in elections, parties twist their messages to favour those who will vote, whilst offering little to non-voters.

Throughout history, policies were produced to bolster support. The rest were affordable enough so they had energy to till the land but not expand their rights.

For a while, the balance may be upset. In the Middle Ages, the Black Death removed a large percentage of workers, resulting in more power for those remaining. In time, they would be included in Parento's Law and normality was resumed. The selfish law works best during status quo.

The same pattern appeared during the banking crisis. Looking after its narrow band of customers resulted in an an inward looking mess. Billions of amounts of public money has helped steady the ship and the system has resumed caring for that top 20 per cent.

So it will ever be. A system of focussing on a narrow band of "customers" becomes in-bred, lacking new ideas. Which is what we have today. A self-centred system of world management. As I write many at feeding at the introverted trough at the gathering in Davos, Switzerland. We have a system where another ripple will cause the next collapse.

David Sharples,

Tarbet Drive,

Breightmet.