No wonder we’re borrowing so much

IT is hardly surprising if we have a shortage of labour. Public borrowing, normally driven upwards by unemployment, is at a record level in a time of full employment. We are not told who is lending this money, but it is to be expected that much of it comes from overseas and that its onward circulation will create demand for goods, services and labour from abroad.

This borrowing is required because to cut benefits or raise taxes for the many would be politically unacceptable. Voters would defect to a different party with essentially the same policies. The public, in their dire poverty, must not be forced to cut back on visits to the nail bar, home deliveries of ready cooked meals or other such essential services.

Ringfencing these former luxuries does entail tying up workers to provide them; workers who are then unavailable to fill the vacancies in the NHS and in care. The staff cannot be in both places at once and, if we were paying our own way, neither could the money.

The other fear prompting more borrowing is that taking more money from, or giving less to, those who actually spend their income could plunge us deeper into recession.

Apparently, the only alternative to seeing the economy contract sharply, presumably with rising unemployment, is to bring in upwards of 200,000 extra workers every year.

The Chancellor is failing to heed the advice of his predecessor, Denis Healey. When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.

John Riseley Harrogate,

North Yorkshire