Labour has betrayed us on every level
IN the Western Mail front-page article “Budget must bring austerity to an end” (October 29), Mark Drakeford, the WAG Finance Secretary, calls upon the Tories to end austerity.
It appears to me that Labour would like to “airbrush” out of history certain facts. Maybe his memory is failing him that it was the then-Labour government that lost the 2010 general election which caused or at least presided over all this mess with the collapse of the banks and racking up the huge deficit in the first place?
Maybe he is unaware that the Labour Party had the opportunity to form a rainbow coalition in the Westminster government in 2010 to keep the Tories out of power but chose instead to retire to the opposition benches and criticise the Tory/LibDem coalition government because the Labour leadership knew that the deficit would have to be tackled and tough times lay ahead. So instead of facing up to and sorting out their own mess they chose to retire and shout from the opposition benches.
Quite clearly Labour balked at the responsibility of managing the cutbacks after their own failure while in government. Indeed, Labour’s Budget proposals were no different from what was finally decided upon by the Tories and Lib-Dem coalition as there was only a “mere” £1bn difference between Labour’s Budget plans and those decided upon by the then Tory PM, David Cameron.
We all know that the Tory austerity measures are terrible, but why on earth did the Labour MPs troop through the Westminster lobbies and vote with the Tories to pass the Austerity Bill?
Furthermore, Labour MPs again voted with the Tories on another crucial bill, i.e. on the welfare cuts, at the time which amounted to a whopping £30bn slashed from the welfare budget.
For a Labour Party movement which was set up supposedly to represent and fight tooth and nail for the ordinary Mr and Mrs Joe Public why has Labour continually voted with, supported and propped up the Tory Party in government in London?
Shamefully, this act of betrayal of their “socialist” principles carried on again, voting with and supporting the Tory proposal to spend nearly £200bn on the new Trident missile programme. Maybe Mr Drakeford can give us a run-down of how many hospitals, schools, nurses, teachers, doctors, police, firefighters, ambulance paramedics, apprenticeships, council services, etc can be built, employed and kept in place with this £200bn?
More recently Labour has reneged on its manifesto pledge to abolish the hated Universal Credit.
What next? Brian Thomas Merthyr Tydfil