Letter: Debt strategy

With Labour and the Liberal Democrats offering unsustainable promises of creating large numbers of jobs, the SNP party political broadcast (PPB) appearing to be the tartan version of The Life of Brian's "What have the Romans done for us?" and the Conservative PPB appearing to be a lifestyle and clothing advert for well-heeled women pensioners, do any of the major parties actually know what they are going to do if unlucky enough to be elected as the government?

We have a financial problem where Britain's total debt responsibility is heading for 3 trillion. The deficit budgeting Gordon Brown started in 2001 is going to have to continue for at least another four years. Servicing this means annual British interest payments just over twice the size of the whole Scottish budget.

The Tory/Lib Dem coalition's answer is to cut public spending and increase certain less obvious taxes. Both of these hit Scotland harder than many areas elsewhere in Britain. The taxes on the North Sea oil industry could actually make things worse in the North-east, the increase in VAT (which is payable on certain transport costs) hits the wider-spread Scottish population and since Scotland has a proportionately much larger public sector, it is going to find the cuts in public sector spending much more difficult to implement.

Do any one of the major parties actually have any ideas about how they are going to handle the financial changes which the Westminster government is being forced to make? How are they going to create private sector jobs when public sector money is in short supply and, to date, organisations such as the overfunded Scottish Enterprise have had little real effect on creating a private sector culture?

BRUCE D SKIVINGTON

Pairc a Ghlib

Strath

Gairloch, Wester Ross