Taxing times for all

I NOTE that Nick Wiltshire and Barbara Roberts (Gazette letters, July 15 and 29), leading members of the local Liberal Democrats, are associating themselves gleefully with what Nick Clegg has done in leading their party into the Conservative coalition.
By The Newsroom
Published 4th Aug 2010, 16:42 BST
Updated 4th Aug 2010, 16:42 BST

I understand one survey suggests that of 40,000 new Labour members one third were previously Lib Dems who, as one local former Lib Dem member said to me, feel betrayed.

However, Clegg and his colleagues are providing political cover for a very Conservative government. For example, the positive effect of lifting the tax threshold will be more than wiped out by the VAT increase to 20 per cent. Also, when does the VAT come in – January.

When does the threshold improve – April.

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They are also providing cover for Michael Gove and Nick Gibb in their arbitrary cutback on the school rebuilding programme, based on what stage the paperwork is at, rather than based on need.

The point is Labour and the Lib Dems both campaigned against this rush to conservatism because we both said it could damage the tentative start of a recovery, which we have recently seen evidence of in the figures from the run-up to the election.

Plan A from Labour was to get the economy back on its feet after the credit crunch and stage the reduction of the deficit over a period which would not endanger growth. Plan B from Nick Clegg was pitch in with the Tories to do what served us so badly in the 1980s.

Alan Butcher

chairman

Littlehampton Labour Party

Cornfield Close

Littlehampton

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Related topics:LabourLiberal DemocratsVATMichael Gove