September 27.
Your editorial states that Harriet Harman claimed that public spending
was the same now as in 1979 (September 27). I listened to her, and she
stated that the percentage of GNP was the same as 1979.
This is very different, as GNP has grown by, say, 2% per annum, and
therefore the Government is spending on public needs actually about 30%
more than in 1979. For example, about half as many again are now in
higher education (perhaps too many for the job market), and massive
infrastructure spending, as on the M74 for Scotland.
Your chief financial editor states: ''Manufacturing output has taken
over from consumer spending as the driving force of the recovery, and
rising exports have sharply reduced the trade deficit against
expectation.'' Is this the ''candy floss'' society so decried by Labour?
On the ''rich'', have not the wicked Tories cut back the perks of the
better off? Tax relief is down from 40% to 25% to 20% and next year will
be only 15% on, say, mortgages.
Price rises (inflation) are down from more than 10% to about 2[1/2]%
per annum; interest rates have risen from 5.25% to 5.75%.
Compare this with the rise in 1976 from 6% to 17% under Labour. Yes, a
different Labour (though still much the same as Scottish Labour) with
sky-high taxes and inflation up to 26%. As for jobs, unemployment went
up threefold, rising by a million.
As for taxes, the top 1% of the people provided 11% of the total tax
take in 1978, but in 1993, at less than half the top rate, that same 1%
provided 15% of the total.
After major errors in the past, the current Government is now going
fast in the right direction and is cutting down on the ''loopholes'' so
beloved of Gordon Brown.
How different would his actions actually be right now, apart from
soaking the few ultra-rich, who can manage for themselves? Would he
abolish mortgage relief at a stroke?
Professor H G Morgan,
8 Eaglesham Road,
Newton Mearns.
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