John Harris’s article about Tory policies over the past 11 years (The decade that broke Britain: the disastrous decisions that left millions in a cost of living crisis, 1 June) was timely and powerful, but it is also worth noting two key ideological assumptions that underpin these devastating policies, and indeed the rationale for austerity.
The first is that tax is always a burden. Some taxes may indeed be regressive and unfair, but tax can be an efficient way of paying for services that improve the quality of life for all. When politicians of a left-of-centre government finally take office, they would do well to argue the case that paying fair taxes can save people money. They might start by using the appalling NHS dentistry provision to exemplify what happens when a public service is inadequately funded.
The second is the hypocritical notion that poor people are better off learning to stand on their own two feet. If the Tories truly believed that, they would have raised inheritance taxes and abolished private education to ensure that their own children could learn to fend for themselves in this way.
Brian Woolland
Salisbury, Wiltshire
In the late 1950s, I spent several years in what was then Rangoon (now Yangon). My husband was at the British embassy and we had three small children. I was horrified when friends told me that their employer paid nothing towards the costs, even travel costs, of a third child – or any subsequent children. The British government placed no such limit.
Far more appalling is the meanness and cruelty of the present government in pursuing this same policy – with the smug overtone of teaching the poor a lesson. Yes, a lesson in the callousness of the party of the better-off.
Jane Reid
London