Corbyn’s Labour should be an open goal for purposeful Conservatives
SIR – The national debt is barrelling towards £2,000 billion (more than £60,000 for every household in the United Kingdom); the annual deficit is still about £50 billion; interest on the national debt is £46 billion a year, more than the entire defence budget.
Meanwhile, industry continues to be hobbled by uncompetitive energy costs, caused by the lack of action on fracking as a stop-gap while economically viable renewables are developed. This inertia has a doublewhammy effect of lost tax from fracking income and lost tax from the profits of industry freed from uncompetitive energy costs.
On the other side of the coin we have the NHS which, no matter how much tax-payer money is thrown at it, demands more. Actions such as pay freezes tinker at the edges, don’t fix the real problem and are unfair to the dedicated people working within it.
What is obvious is that the current “sacred” NHS model is not remotely sustainable and a radical redesign is needed. (There are many models round the world that could be studied.)
These are two of many examples from a weak Conservative Government with no coherent plan to fix the annual deficit, let alone the debt.
Unless the Conservatives make a New Year’s resolution to rediscover a sense of purpose and confidence based on Conservative values, we are in for a very difficult future. A Corbyn-led Labour Party should be an open goal for the Conservatives. Could they please put the ball in the net? Tony Marshall
Horsham, West Sussex
SIR – Lord Heseltine believes that a Corbyn-led Labour government would be better for Britain than leaving the European Union. But the socialism proposed by Corbyn and his acolytes bears no comparison with previous Labour administrations, even those of the Wilson era that wanted to squeeze the rich “until the pips squeak”.
Today’s Labour leadership has professed support for Marxism as exemplified by “socialism in action” in Venezuela – which has reduced that once-wealthy country to a pariah state.
Lord Heseltine may believe that the damage done by a Labour government would be capable of rectification. But businesses today make decisions for the long term, and if they up sticks from Britain I doubt they’d return.
The Corbyn bandwagon is pushed by Momentum, its efficient campaign organisation, which has made clear its aim to ensure that Labour MPS and party officials down to local level follow the “Corbyn” line. So much for democracy.
Momentum’s agenda, coupled with the ways that John Mcdonnell, the shadow Chancellor, would dream up of making those with any wealth “pay a little bit more”, would frighten off investors in Britain for generations. The economic damage would be immense, with a catastrophic collapse of sterling and a consequent dramatic rise in interest rates. George Harris
Kinver, Staffordshire