The mess Labour left us in

Posted By: Wera Hobhouse
Date Posted: 17/07/2010

I am sure I am not the only one who finds it astonishing that our Labour MP Jim Dobbin managed to write a whole letter on the budget without one single mention of the terrible financial situation that his Government left us with. Not one mention of the £5000 a second that our country is borrowing; not one mention of the £70 billion a year that the government will soon be paying in interest alone; not one proposal for how Labour would tackle this enormous problem; and, of course, not one word of apology.

Labour MPs are sticking their fingers in their ears and their heads in the sand, hoping that no-one will remember that the mess the coalition government is now cleaning up is Labour's legacy.

Mr Dobbin also seems to deliberately ignore that this budget contained many Lib Dem proposals to make our country fairer. Raising the income tax threshold, re-linking the basic state pension to earnings, increasing Capital Gains Tax for the richest, an extra £2 billion in child tax credits for the poorest families. These are real commitments that, at a time of difficult cuts, help to protect the least well-off.

We promised fairness during the election campaign, and we are now delivering it in government.

Meanwhile Labour MPs are not just acting irresponsibly, they are treating the public like fools - Mr Dobbin may hope that the public have already forgotten the mess his government left behind, but while it is rather convenient for politicians to have short memories, people usually don't.