IN A YEAR when senior bankers and MPs have become public hate figures, small gestures of kindness have meant a great deal to the beleaguered leaders.
Retired teacher Colin Nugent, 62, took it upon himself to write letters of support to about 200 financiers, businessmen and poli-ticians over the past 12 months – and received more than 100 replies.
But Mr Nugent was in fact the creation of comedy writer and producer Geoff Atkinson, whose letters and the replies he received are collected in a new book, Colin Nugent Saves Britain.
Mr Nugent praised the “noble act of taking on a big house and asking the public to chip in” in writing to Anthony Steen – once an MP in Liverpool – who described critics of his expenses claims as “jealous” because he lived in a large home that resembled Royal residence Balmoral.
Mr Steen, now MP for Totnes in Devon, replied that his “splendid” letter would “look good in one of our local newspapers”, and even included the names and addresses of their editors.
