The government’s dash for growth misses one key point
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The government’s dash for growth does not seem to make any allowance for the fact that growth requires resources: people, goods and services. Shortages in labour and supplies are reported across many industries so I fear growth will take time while those shortages are overcome and there is a surplus for new business. In the meantime, throwing money at it will, as always, only increase prices for the existing supply of people, goods and services. Witness Gordon Brown throwing money at the health service 20 years ago...
Meanwhile, the Bank of England will put up interest rates to curb inflation. The causal link is that higher interest rates will deter borrowing, increase saving and reduce demand. It takes time to take effect and, of course, it only works if it reduces economic activity – the opposite of the government’s dash for growth.
The focus should be on the labour shortage which appears to be a combination of withdrawal and health.
Jon Hawksley
Address supplied
This looks like a bid for donations
I have noticed scant comment on another excellent reason to further enrich the section of our community that is already wealthy: quite simply they can then donate more money – after enlarging sundry trusts and buying more property – to the Conservative Party’s depleted coffers (three general elections in seven years is not cheap) in readiness for a spring 2023 election. Needless to say, in the campaigning next year we shall be promised tax cuts, energy security via fracking, control over our borders, and if we all work harder and pull together we shall move seamlessly to a glorious future.
Oh and don’t forget the point I mentioned the other week: government fingers are crossed that England win the football World Cup in Qatar.
Robert Boston
Kingshill, Kent
Puppets or muppets?
Many have said that, while no one could deny the cunning and determination she possesses, Liz Truss lacks the intelligence to match her current position. Tempting as this opinion is, it does seem to smack of misogynistic rhetoric. However, she (and her cabinet’s) ability to change their alliances along with their principles in such a short time does beg the question: do we have a government of muppets who are just regurgitating discredited Thatcherite ideas, based on the “devil take the hindmost” principles of the right wing of society; or do we have a government who are puppets of the right and are having their strings pulled by the Bullingdon Boys of the party, business and the City?
So many of the new prime minister’s policies seem to be directly from the Rees-Mogg playbook that it would seem clear that not many of the announcements made recently are derived from original thought.
Either way, the future for the common man and woman looks bleak – and their children’s futures look worse.
Ted Waldron
Pentre
Sustainability over growth
On the Today programme this morning, 23 September, Simon Clarke (the levelling up secretary), spoke fluently and earnestly, very unlike the waffle we have been used to hearing from the previous cabinet when questioned on air. But if his word cloud were to be drawn up, the word “growth” would have been among the most prominent ones used. Yes, this is naive and idealistic, but surely sustainability rather than growth should be our economic aim?
The world’s natural resources are limited and diminishing as well as unequally available, and as usual poorer nations suffer. Surely to solve the interlinked problems of world poverty – unequal access to medicines, all the effects of climate change (drought, fires, floods, pestilence, conflict) etc – what is needed is universal cooperation aiming for balance rather than endless growth?
Nothing in the natural world goes on growing forever, it would die if it did – like the dinosaurs. Of course, this philosophy isn’t a vote winner, is it Kwasi Kwarteng? (Oh, was that a pig I just saw flying by?)
Rosemary Mathew
Cambridge
Tory deterrence
As the latest government figures show that a record 30,000 migrants have crossed the Channel this year, surely it is time for a review of the deterrence strategy. It is clear that the threat of removal to Rwanda, a threat designed more to appeal to xenophobic floating voters than to inform people fleeing persecution, is having no effect on the problem.
Surely, a more efficient, and cost-effective, strategy to deter immigrants would be to pay for the temporary installation of large screen TV screens in many of the squares in northern France and southwest Belgium to broadcast this year’s Conservative Party conference? Even for the majority of the refugees who have family connections or other valid reasons for trying to get to the UK, exposure to Truss, Rees-Mogg, Badenoch et al, would be a significant deterrent.
Phil Whitney
Cromford
Inequality is a scourge
Do Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng really believe that £3,000 a year more in the pockets of those earning over £200,000 a year or handing more bonuses to City bankers and traders will galvanise them into producing more and lead to more jobs? Inequality in the UK is a scourge and must be redressed if the country wants to avoid social unrest given the discrepancies in earnings and tax breaks between the 1 per cent and the rest of the population.
Peter Fieldman
Address supplied
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