Letter: The answer to the Covid crisis was obvious
We are £2.06 trillion in debt. It is a figure which is impossible to write down, let alone imagine. No problem the idiots say, interest rates are at an all-time low.
I feel mightily embarrassed at the debt which people such as myself have incurred on a national basis which we will then pass on as a legacy for those that come after us. We had the rubbish about the penury caused by austerity. Let’s face it that definition of an austere life style didn’t cut it with us antiques who knew real hardship when young (we couldn’t have afforded mobile phones or ten feet wide TVs even if they’d been invented). Should we in fact have have continued to live forever beyond our means?
Then we have the oft quoted economic genius who tells us that it doesn’t matter as rates are low.
Does it never occur that sometime in the future, as the weakness of UKs finances becomes apparent to the world that rates will increase? Loans mature sometime and when the low rate loans come to maturity, then the true scale of the disaster will be clear.
This may be a cause to reflect for those who believe that the Government policy of killing business (the goose that lays the golden tax egg) is fine and should be taken to the nth degree.
How unthinking and stupid such people are! I would certainly have argued for money to be spent but the level of waste resulting from throwing our hard earned tax cash at problems is breathtaking. Billion upon billion has been thrown down a black hole almost as if the Tories were competing with Labour on spending.
The answer to Covid was obvious. Protect the vulnerable but allow others to keep the country going whilst ensuring the obvious protections eg masks, hand washing etc was in place. Currently the cure we are taking is far worse than the malady we are trying to cure and will leave us in a state of penury in the future, unable to afford either personally or as a nation, those things which make life worthwhile. Furthermore, it will not be the fat cats who will be paying for this, it will be the working man/woman and the current inequality will expand exponentially.
Alan Etheridge
