SIR – Through sheer repetition, the Con-Dem Government has convinced a lot of people that the deficit was caused by excessive state spending.

It has cut thousands of jobs, which has predictably worsened the recession.

Instead of cuts, we need to create jobs. In the late 1940s government debt was almost 250 per cent of GDP.

There was no talk of a crisis in Britain at the time; no talk of the necessity for cuts in public services or pensions to service debt.

The immediate post-war period saw the creation of a universal welfare state.

The Government has been creating a panic over the national debt in order to destroy the welfare state and to give up the NHS to wholesale privatisation.

The vast majority of us did not cause this ‘crisis’ and we shouldn’t have to pay for it.

According to the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), there is an estimated £120 billion in uncollected and evaded tax out there – money that is owed to the State.

Therefore, how can anyone come to the conclusion that cutting and privatising public services is necessary?

NEIL LAURENSON
Worcester Green Party