SIR – The Lib Dems are no radicals. Nick Clegg’s latest lurch to the right, calling for “savage” cuts in government spending is clear evidence that he is never going to “go radical”.

Lib Dem promises on scrapping tuition fees and maintaining universal child benefit are being abandoned.

Labour, the Conservatives and now even the Lib Dems are positioning themselves in the same crowded “centre right”.

The main parties are vying in a competition to “out-cut” one another on public services.

This has the effect of deflecting attention from the real issue.

Britain’s debt as a proportion of national income isn’t particularly high by historical standards.

At a time when the number of jobless people is nearing 2.5 million, including nearly a million 16- to 24-year-olds, the subject which should be dominating the headlines is unemployment.

Caroline Lucas, Green Party leader, is advocating a different way forward. “Massive investment in energy efficiency and renewable energy would create hundreds of thousands of tax-generating jobs, and address the climate crisis”, she says.

“Tax increases for the very wealthy, plus a crackdown on bonuses and chief executive pay, would raise billions, and start to address the shameful increase in inequality under Labour. Scrapping Trident and ID cards would save billions more.”

Louis Stephen,
Worcester Green Party Parliamentary candidate.