Keir Starmer revealed his inner Tory when he told us that there is no alternative to his planned hair-shirt cuts (Starmer hints at tax rises as he warns of ‘painful’ budget, 27 August). Apparently his policy will be to grow the economy through cuts in public expenditure – the policy pursued by George Osborne, which failed dismally because it is economic illiteracy.
Peter Fuller
Morpeth, Northumberland
• “How much a government needs to borrow and spend should be determined by the state of the economy, not by how much debt its predecessor has left it,” says your editorial (27 August). Replace “economy” with “country and its people” and never a truer word was spoken. The last 14 years have broken us as well as the country. We need a Beveridge Mark 2, not austerity lite. We need hope.
Lyn Dade
Twickenham, London
