Debt questions (From Cotswold Journal)

Debt questions

11:00am Thursday 24th May 2012 in Letters

IT is understandable that Peter Luff MP should seek to perpetuate the myth of Labour’s overspending (Journal letters, May 17).

After all, his party’s policy of wrecking the public sector, destroying positive growth in the economy and plunging us back into recession relies on the constant repetition of that myth.

Mr Luff also refuses to point to the real culprits: the banks, which caused the financial crisis.

Perhaps because the Conservative front bench was demanding even less regulation of the financial sector in the run-up to the crash.

The simple fact is that both public sector net debt and general government gross debt were significantly lower between 2000 and 2009 (under Labour) than they were in 1997, when the Tories lost power.

Net debt as a percentage of GDP fell dramatically under Labour and did not return to the level it had reached under the Tories until the height of the financial crisis in 2009.

The public sector debt only rose as a result of the economic downturn caused by the international banks.

In 2010, when Labour lost power, our public debt as a percentage of GDP was lower than Germany’s or France’s. Even today, the UK’s debt is much lower than it has been for 200 of the past 250 years.

Bear that in mind when the Coalition’s politically motivated cuts really start to bite. They were sold to you on the basis of a myth.

MR LYNN DAVIES, Kings Lane, Norton, Evesham