In response to your story ‘Ellis Fairbank director speaks of his anguish’ (Recruiter, 4 February), my beef is not with Ellis Fairbank per se, as what they did was lawful (but Harry Cross is spot on when he says it does look “like a cynical ploy to ditch the debt”). No, my beef is with your magazine and its supine journalism.

The whole economy is in this mess because of a blasé and irresponsible attitude towards debt. You give a four-column plea for clemency from a company which ran up £4m of debt to staff and suppliers (before we even get to the £10m owed to the bank) without you apparently challenging them one iota.

Many recruiters put themselves at a competitive disadvantage by deciding to grow organically as it’s prudent, and choose to pay their bills on time because it is simply the right thing to do. Why bother when the trade journal will give you the chance to explain how hard it was for you to choose the option which allowed you to wash away most of the debt and carry on with the brand, database and assets of the business?

Recruiter does a great job of championing the recruitment industry, but please give us some better journalism. For example, when Cross was doing “nothing else” but working on re-financing the business, why was one of his former co-directors looking to set up new divisions (with all the initial cash-burning investment that takes)? Why didn’t Recruiter know this? Why didn’t you question that strategy? Perhaps because that would take a little investigation and having the backbone to delve behind an apology which has been spoon fed to you.

Come on, you can do better and your readers deserve better.