‘The country needs a reboot but, sadly, it won’t happen with no policies for change’

• YOUR correspondent Martin Plaut’s staunch and detailed defence of the “achievements” in the 13 years of the last Labour governments fails to acknowledge the fact that the direction of travel was utterly unaffected by the actions of those governments: neo-liberal economic policies remained in place, (Look at Labour’s achievements, July 13).

The global financial crisis which occurred at the end of their reign confirms this; and the fact that their Low-pay Commission celebrated its 25th Anniversary in 2022, with low pay still being widespread, shows how toothless that body was.

And there is the failure to repeal even the sale of council houses, confirming Blair’s conservative values: over a third of the homes sold are now in the hands of private landlords, and we wonder why there are homeless people in every part of this benighted country!

But my main complaint is the utterly pathetic response of Keir Starmer to the current disasters facing our country after the decades of neo-liberal economics and Tory austerity policies and, of course Brexit, a word he never dares utter, despite the multiple impacts that this policy is having on almost every part of the economy from agriculture to the NHS and beyond.

And I haven’t even mentioned the disastrous impacts of privatisation of vital public services like water, energy supplies and the transport system, most of which are now in the hands of European state-owned companies, showing how ridiculous the policy was!

Mr Starmer’s comments over the weekend, when he ruled out increasing spending in the public sector and would apply “razor sharp focus on growth” could have been written by Conservative Central Office!

Britain is one of the richest countries in the world, what we need are policies to share that wealth more equally. We all helped create that wealth, so let’s tax the rich and billionaires better: close the tax loopholes, tax their billions, and use that money to begin to repair the damage the Tories have inflicted on our welfare state, starting with the NHS.

The country needs a reboot but, sadly, it won’t happen with no policies for change.

DAVID REED
Eton Avenue, NW3