SURELY, enough is enough, your newspaper (and comments from its readers) has maligned Liverpool/Merseyside and its population over the cruise liner terminal to the point that it is now offensive and insulting. It’s bad enough to be branded as thieves and thugs when the truth is far from that.

But now the Daily Echo somehow links the dredging of the river to improve its efficiency as, in some way stealing from Southampton, how pathetic!

This £30m grant is dependant on a £230m scheme to improve the container terminal (which already deals with massive ships and moves about 40 million tonnes of freight annually).

Therefore, only 12 per cent of the total spend.

Surely this is no different from the £54m grant Southampton spent on its rail network to improve links to the Midlands and north which would impinge on Liverpool and other ports.

But that was in the name of efficiency and competition, an ethic which you seem to think only applies to yourselves and should not be extended to anybody else.

I do not believe the normal citizens of your city think many of the things being written are true, but nontheless, it is still insulting and offensive.

As a frequent cruiser, I promise I will never sail from Southampton again, but will fly to foreign ports to embark, and I hope many more northerners will follow suit.

T WADE, Bootle, Liverpool.