Letter: High taxes and bad attitudes

Sir: In reply to Bill Robinson ('Simple arithmetic and Tory taxes', 25 January ), of course things would be different under a Labour government. They would be different whoever else was in power, but that is not the issue.

If the promise to reduce taxes 'year on year' was only a passing remark, as is frequently claimed, it was one that was defended week on week, day after day, hour after hour, and was part of the Tory effort to portray Labour as the high tax party and themselves as the opposite. On their own terms, none of this was true.

What is true is that, after 11 years in power, they abandoned Margaret Thatcher as an electoral liability and replaced her with a leader who made promises in the ensuing election campaign that were abandoned in subsequent budgets. Our family do not mind paying extra taxes for health care, education and the like (and surely we are not alone), but we do mind a cavalier attitude to the truth. These people have lied, and that is the issue.

Yours faithfully,

N. C. CARTHY

M. D. F. CARTHY

Robin Hood's Bay,

North Yorkshire

25 January