I'm puzzled by the short report by Catherine MacLeod (March 16), advising that Gordon Brown is expected to privatise part of the student loan system and I would have liked a fuller explanation. Students take on a loan out of necessity, an interest element is added, and they pay it back when they can afford it (or so I understand). If it is privatised, suddenly there's a profit margin to be added to the bill. Who pays this? The student? Or the taxpayer? Why would Gordon Brown be advocating this? If loans are a necessary evil, itself debatable, then at least the government can minimise the impact as much as possible.

Is there any morality in privatising student loans, or is it just a cynical way of massaging public-sector debt percentages? But then, morality evaporated from this government a long time ago.
Sandy Slater,
19 Lorn Drive, Glencoe, Argyll.