LETTER: Do not blame Labour Party for cuts

Before the international banking crisis, the local Tories were some of the loudest calling for the Labour Goverment to spend more: not to close Pendle post offices, not to scrap the Post Office Card Account, not to move full accident and emergency facilities from Burnley to Blackburn to name but three important instances Pendle Labour Party also supported.

It’s true that before the banking crisis, the national debt was getting so low Labour was accused of not spending enough.

Now, the Tories can’t have it both ways. The Tories at Westminster also went on to back almost all the measures that Labour introduced during the international banking crisis that saved the banking system.

Labour currently has a five-point plan to reduce the deficit without cutting front line public services. So why are the Tories cutting them? Let’s remember Oliver Letwin MP being slapped down by the Tory Party in 2001 (before any sign of a credit crisis) for disclosing to the Financial Times a Tory policy to cut £10 billion from public service spending as part of their plans should William Hague have won that General Election.

Labour are not to blame for the Tory cuts. They have been planned for over 10 years and have nothing to do with the national deficit caused by the international banking crisis.

DAVID FOAT

Varley Street, Colne