Dear Sir,
You’ve published a number of letters arguing which Party is to blame for the current economic mess. Is it as simple as Party politics?
No peacetime government ever borrowed on the scale that Labour did. Blair’s unaffordable PA deals will haunt us for years and Brown destroyed decent pensions. Labour did massive damage and their legacy lives on.
The present government puts dogma ahead of economics. The NHS and most public services are being put in the hands of dubious companies like Southern Cross and A4e. They will make exorbitant profits from our taxes while jobs are destroyed and services deteriorate.
But all the political parties watched for years while jobs were sent abroad. Millions of well-paid manufacturing jobs were replaced by low paid service jobs. Consequently living standards and tax receipts fell.
All governments supported the minimum wage even though it’s not a living wage. The argument that people should be better off in work than on the dole doesn’t mean you’ll be well off in work! One million pay day loans paints the real picture. The ‘Working Poor’ rely on agencies offering temporary minimum wage jobs with no pension.
No political party has stopped the tax avoidance of unscrupulous individuals and companies. The sums involved would clear the national debt at a stroke.
Politicians won’t even stop 3000% interest charges!
All our political parties ignore private equity buy outs which cancel out corporation tax that would have been paid on profits.
I would argue that all political parties and successive governments are to blame for the current mess. We need to start producing goods that other countries want to buy. We need full employment. We need control over our politicians.
‘Made in Britain’ used to mean the best in the world. Now Britain leads the world in having the most corrupt banks, dodgy insurance companies, accomplished tax dodgers, crooked national (and sometimes local) politicians and unscrupulous national press.
How on earth did we get here?
Tom Hodgson