Tax cuts will only make public services poorer and more dysfunctional - Yorkshire Post Letters

There are plenty of newspaper headlines demanding Tax cuts as we enter a 2024 election year.

When interest rates were relatively low as they have been up to recently, government borrowing was not a big issue.

Now that Bank interest rates are over 5 per cent a substantial amount of Tax revenue is needed to pay for government borrowing. To borrow money to pay for tax cuts is a fool’s game, as we found recently in Liz Truss’s mini budget.

Our school buildings are crumbling, teachers are leaving the profession in droves. Our roads are pot hole riven. The NHS waiting lists grows longer, with NHS satisfaction rates at less than 30 per cent compared with 70 per cent in the last years of a Labour government.

The result being that a greater number of people are having to spend their life savings on private medicine.

Local government is suffering from major cuts in staff and expenditure due to years of reduced Westminster grants. This has impacted on social services, schools, youth services and environmental protection.

If we want to live in a civilised society with decent public services, these must be adequately paid for. Tax cuts will only make those public services that remain, even poorer and more dysfunctional.