Take another look at red-tint disaster

SO, WE have the red-tinted spectacles of Bognor’s Labour apologist Jan Cosgrove (Gazette letters, December 2) turned on the financial disaster bequeathed to the British electorate by Gordon Brown, Ed Miliband, etc.

He quotes statistics through the 1950s, when we had rationing and really shocking housing, to the 60s, 80s and 90s.

He readily admits that the debt run up by Gordon Brown shot up from 36 per cent of GDP in 2008, to a truly staggering 52 per cent this year.

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By any European or western standards, this is unsustainable in terms of interest payments alone, and would cripple investment in schools, hospitals, railways, roads and social support.

Let us not forget that this was as much a result of Labour throwing public money, in the form of ever increasing borrowing, at every public service regardless of the value of the outcomes, as its complete failure to regulate properly the activities of the banking sector, and especially the speculative “casino” activities, which helped fuel the unsusta-inable housing market boom and then bust.

As to his parting lie that locally Liberal Democrats have been silent, let me just remind him that Lib-Dem councillors at both Arun and county have been pressing continuously for more affordable homes to be built for our local young people, are pressing for an expansion in the youth service locally instead of cuts proposed by the Tory county council.

We are also supporting the Lib-Dem-introduced coalition policies of the pupil premium for schools in deprived areas, the linking of the old age pension to average earnings, the taking out of the income tax system of those earning £10,000 or less, and a less expensive system for students than that proposed by the Labour party.

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The sooner the coalition gets us out of this dreadful Labour inheritance, the better it will be all our public services, and most individuals who use them.

Meanwhile, Labour has no policies at all on these major issues, save to say that they wouldn’t do it this way!

They were going to raise VAT and cut public expenditure straight after the election in any case; they are now just pretending that they would not have done so!

Dr James Walsh

Liberal Democrat county

district and Littlehampton town councillor

The Street

Rustington

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