I read an article in the paper this week which likened the Tory-led Government’s plan for the economy to a medieval doctor bleeding his patient. Noticing that the patient is getting sicker not better, the wrong-headed doctor decides that this calls for even more bleeding.

David Cameron’s tax rises and spending cuts go too far and too fast, and are draining the life blood from the British economy. But instead of changing course in the Autumn statement last week, the Tory-led Government offered us more of the same.

The Government is using the grim economic outlook to justify more cuts and austerity but this will only depress the economy further and cost us more in the long run.

The more people that are out of work, the more we’ll need to pay in benefits. With this kind of vicious circle, the job of getting the deficit down becomes even harder.

Labour would have made cuts for sure, but we would spread them over the longer term. We would prioritise jobs with a 5 point plan for jobs and growth. Our tax on bank bonuses would be used to create 100,000 jobs for young people, getting them off benefits and contributing to a stronger and more stable Britain. We’d also offer a tax break to small companies who take on new staff.

The Government has accepted that it won’t balance the books like it promised last year. Now it must change tack as well.

FAILED ECONOMIC PLAN IS UNFAIR, TOO

After the election last year, David Cameron and Nick Clegg promised they had a plan that would eliminate the deficit by the end of this Parliament. They said we were all in this together and that the books would not be balanced on the backs of the poor. By the end of their term of office, the deficit would be gone.

Labour Leader Ed Miliband tackled David Cameron over this broken promise at Prime Minister’s Questions this week, protesting at the reckless economic policies which are not only failing to revive our economy, but are unfair too.

As experts get to grips with the impact of David Cameron’s latest measures, it is clear that women, families and the low paid are getting the worse deal out of last week’s mini-budget. According to the independent think tank, the Institute of Fiscal Studies, the poorest 30 per cent of households will lose three times as much of their net income as the richest 30 per cent in 2012-13 as a result of tax and benefit changes announced by the Chancellor. Other figures show that women will shoulder a staggering 73% of the cuts announced last week.

Big promises have been made about fairness both by the Liberal Democrats and by the Tories who promised that their ‘nasty’ days were behind them. Now it seems they are not so sure. 

I’ve got huge sympathy for those people whose lives were disrupted this week – parents who couldn’t take their kids to school and had to stay at home to look after them.

But I won’t condemn the dinner ladies, nurses and teachers who decided to go on strike this week. They have been put in an impossible position by a Government that has refused to negotiate properly and fairly.

You can’t slap what amounts to a 3% tax rise on some of the lowest paid workers in the country and refuse to negotiate with them on it, particularly in these tough times.  

So I’m afraid the Government has got to accept responsibility. It’s their failure that has led to the strikes this week. 

 

This week we found out that David Cameron and George Osborne’s reckless economic plan has completely failed. Families, pensioners and businesses know it’s hurting, but now they know it isn’t working either.

According to the official forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility this week, borrowing is up, unemployment is up and growth has been revised down.  In fact, the Government are now set to borrow a staggering £158 billion more than they planned a year ago – the bill for the economic failure, higher unemployment and bigger benefits bill their failed plan has created.

Despite the pain of £40 billion more spending cuts and tax rises the Chancellor boasted about last year, the recovery he choked off and the higher unemployment he created means billions more borrowing for failure.

Trying to go further and faster has been utterly self-defeating. It has backfired. All this pain, for no gain.

There is an alternative.  Labour’s 5 point plan for jobs and growth would create 100,000 jobs for young people by taxing this year’s banker’s bonuses and would give a tax break to every small firm that takes on extra workers.

This week’s events are clear evidence that the Government needs to change course. 

They must take action now before it is too late.