Well said, John Harris (Keir Starmer is threatening to leave our crises unchanged. So what social forces will he unleash?, 16 July). At last a journalist is challenging the Labour/Tory nonsense about spending money on our cash-starved public services being “unaffordable”, because there is “no new funding available”. Of course, when Keir Starmer writes or speaks, the 13 years of unnecessary austerity are “pretty much unmentioned”, as Harris says, as they were the result of political choices which, it seems, the Labour leader is about to replicate.
Starmer’s insistence that what is needed is “reform” is correct, but not of our underfunded education, health and care services, where cash injections are needed immediately, if only to stop the outward flow of essential staff. Where reform is really needed is in the taxation system: the rich and high earners have to pay more; the oft-suggested equalisation of capital gains and income tax has to become a reality; the tax gap of £32bn has to be reduced; all tax reliefs need assessing; and all loopholes, especially those in inheritance tax, have to be closed.
Bernie Evans
Liverpool
