Curing Britain's Hangover - with tax cuts

Published in Stockport Express on Wed 12th Nov 2008

Everyone in Stockport knows the credit bubble has burst - banks nationalised, home repossessions shooting up, and jobs lost as businesses shrink.

Many Express readers are thinking twice about spending on big ticket items - and it's the low-cost supermarkets that are getting our business as belts are tightened and credit cards cut up and binned.

It is a sound idea to batten down the hatches and cut the debt - nothing is more important than keeping the roof over your head, and food on the table. Cutting out the luxuries makes a lot of sense when times are hard. But it is also part of the problem. That's because if no-one spends anything on stuff any more, all the people who make it and sell it lose their jobs. And that could be your job gone, too.

That's why the Liberal Democrats have been pushing hard for a tax cut for lower paid workers, paid for by more tax on the fat cats' bonuses. Because if we could do what the banks call 'rebuild our reserves' - get a bit of cash in our pockets - we'd be ready to spend again. That's the quickest way to keep the British economy from meltdown.

The Government has pumped billions into the banks to get them spending, and providing mortgages and loans again. Now they need to help us to do the same.

Of course, if the Labour Government had paid attention to the warnings it was given by the Liberal Democrat Shadow Chancellor Vince Cable four years ago, things wouldn't be this bad. Unfortunately, egged on by the Conservatives - who actually wanted LESS control of the banking madhouse when it obviously needed more - Labour let things rip. Now they must listen to the sane words of Mr Cable.

If we're going to get our country out of the recession - the biggest economic hangover Britain has suffered since the last time the Tories were in power - we need a bit of the hair of the dog that bit you, as they say. Tax cuts putting cash in people's pockets is the way to oil the wheels of the economy, and stave off a full-blown slump.

We've been proved right at every step of this crisis so far. Perhaps just for once Labour will listen, and do the right thing before even more jobs and homes are lost.

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