Paying for it!

The Star`s editorial rightly suggested cancelling renters` arrears and making landlords "eligible for whatever income supplement they might be entitled to under normal social security provisions" (Star, 13/05/20). Labour should be supporting such a policy rather than having private tenants being put under impossible pressure to pay back unpaid rent later.

   What the government will say, of course, is that such bankrolling by the state is unaffordable, and already, despite Johnson`s claim that he doesn`t support "the A-word", a leaked Treasury document is suggesting a two-year pay freeze for public sector workers. Labour must not allow the ridiculous Thatcherite argument about a government being like a household, and having to balance the books to avoid bankruptcy, to dominate economic thinking ever again. It was ridiculous in the 1980s, in the Cameron/Osborne years, and is even more ludicrous now!

    Although not without doubt, Johnson might support the B-word, and if he doesn't  Starmer needs to put him right. Borrowing for UK governments has never been cheaper, and with available interest rates of below 1%, Johnson, Cummings, Sunak, or whoever decides such things, must not waste the opportunity. The right wing will protest, of course, but it`s not too late for the Labour leadership team to teach the Tories some basic economics.

    Apparently, the UK`s current debt-to-GDP ratio stands at 83%, and because of current spending, likely to rise this year to 95%. Tories have long maintained that countries with over 100% debt-to-GDP ratio are reckless, and will end up like Italy and Greece after the euro crisis, with ratios of 130% and 180% respectively. Watch out for Tory propaganda about "snowballing" and "spiralling out of control".

 It is not the size of the debt, but the amount of interest needed to be paid which matters, and the increased interest can be funded with taxes on the earnings and property of the rich, not the nation as a whole, and from dealing with tax evasion and avoidance. It is worth reminding the Tories that the debt-to-GDP ratio of the world`s third largest economy, Japan, is over 250%. In the current emergency, there is little wrong if the ratio of the 6th largest rises to over 95%!