Labour too timid on economy

Labour`s timidity "in the face of a tsunami of redundancies" is rightly criticised by Len McCluskey, and , as your recent editorial stated, waiting for the next election before "coming up with new manifesto commitments in four years time" is not good enough (Star, 17/07/20). With nothing on the table but mild criticism from Labour, the Tories will have a field day, and their propaganda machine has already started on its campaign to prepare the British people for tax increases. Ex-ministers like David Gauke, plus the usual right wing thinktanks, are warning about how the books cannot be balanced without massive tax rises, not on the wealthy`s income and property, but on ordinary people though increases in basic rate income tax and VAT. One Tory apologist on the Today programme even said that VAT was fair, because "everyone had to pay it", without any challenge whatsoever from the interviewer! Tories are not averse to using economic theories which have been proved to be mistaken to justify their fiscal policies. The much derided Laffer curve has vindicated many a Tory chancellor`s refusal to increase the rich`s tax burden, and Labour`s failure to rubbish it has cost the country dear. Starmer and co, cannot afford to make the same mistake again. When Johnson and Sunak insist, as they undoubtedly will, that government borrowing has to stop because the debt is too great, the Reinhart-Rogoff paper will be their justification, as it claimed having a debt-to-GDP ratio of above 90% slowed economic growth to 0.1%. Labour must point out that this is flawed, largely because the two economists ignored facts on a spreadsheet which revealed that the borrowing stimulated growth to 2.2%! The current level of government spending is not "unsustainable" as Tories will claim, but unless Labour gets its "retaliation in first", Johnson and Sunak will win the argument as they did in 2010, with even more dire consequences!