LETTER:Inflation and the 'feel-good factor'

Sir: As usual, Gavyn Davies provides perceptive analysis ("Is this the start of a cut-and-run polls strategy?", 9 May). That elusive "feel-good factor" has proved too elusive for the Government.

There are no votes in pursuing the objective of sustained economic growth with low inflation. This is sensible to those with a knowledge of economics, but the results of economic policy cannot be esoteric. We shall now witness the steady relaxation of monetary policy, coupled with a blurring of the inflation target.

The Conservatives drove us into an artificial "boom", which was followed by the inevitable "bust", and they remain in office today. Who, then, can blame the Conservative right for believing that tax cuts, to stimulate something akin to that Eighties "feel-good factor", will see them re-elected? It has happened before now. The nasty effects of such feckless action, like latent inflation, can easily be dealt with during their next mid- term period, when that ballot box is nicely locked away for a while.

Yours faithfully,

DARREN J. HOWELL

Norwich

10 May