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Misleading account

By being selective with his national debt statistics Don Reeve gave an inaccurate account of the serious financial crisis facing the country in 2010 (SA April 12).

While comparing expansion of national debt from 2010 to the present he failed to mention or give any details on UK deficit. This oversight gives an extremely misleading account of what really happened.

Deficit is the difference between the amount the government spends and how much it receives in taxes and other income. If the government spends more than it takes in, it is in deficit. If it receives more than it spends, it is in surplus.

When the coalition government took over in 2010 the new chief secretary to the treasury, David Laws, was left a note by his predecessor, Liam Byrne, saying “There’s no money left”. This wasn’t a joke, the country was heading towards bankruptcy.

The deficit in 1996/97, the year before Labour came to power, was 3.4 per cent of GDP. By 2009/10, their last year in power, this had risen to 10.1 per cent of GDP or approximately £150 billion a year. By the financial year 2016/17 deficit was reduced to just 2.4 per cent of GDP. These figures can be verified on the Office for National Statistics web site.

I am reminded of the observation by the fictional character Mr Micawber from the Charles Dickens novel David Copperfield: “Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen, nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery”.

The last Labour government went on a spending spree. They spent other people’s money, spent money they didn’t have and failed to save for a rainy day.

Their failure to control their spending has resulted in years of misery for millions of UK citizens.

K Kane, Wharf Road, Wroughton

Let’s talk shop

With yet another shop closing in the town centre (That’s Entertainment) how bad does it have to get for our council to finally do anything about it?

Other towns across the country have eradicated this problem because they have a forward-thinking council that think outside the box. Our council should start by stopping the planning department giving out retail licences to shops on industrial and trading estates and bring them back into the town.

Let’s hope the electorate does something about this in May.

Jan Sturgess, Grange Drive, Swindon

The die is cast

The Metropolitan Police Commissioner states that she hopes the perpetrators of the attack on the Skripals in Salisbury will be apprehended and brought to justice, to which the question must surely be – Why? After all the PM, the media and indeed the vast majority of the public are convinced the attempt to kill these two people was conducted by Russia and its agents. Over 200 detectives have been deployed on this case and a fortune has already been spent; the question to be asked is to what effect?

The Government had already determined the origin and type of nerve agent (confirmed by international sources) and opened that this was a crude attack on a British citizen (why was a double agent ever given British citizenship?). Therefore, any further investigation made by the police is designed with a single purpose in mind, which is to confirm what has already been stated – Russia is guilty and there is no need to look elsewhere.

Let’s just bring this to a quick end – the Skripals are out of danger, the die is cast in terms of Mrs May’s call to arms and the increasing danger of yet more gesture politics with a few Tornadoes joining forces with the USA (to demonstrate solidarity) in bombing Syrian targets.

Will we ever learn that we are not the world’s policeman, and unless we can be even handed we should not interfere in another sovereign state’s civil war. 

Des Morgan, Caraway Drive, Swindon

Store is excellent

My attention has been drawn to an article denigrating Highworth Co-op, which in fact is excellent.

When the store was built, they built the library above it, which is let to us at a peppercorn rent.

When Highworth Post Office closed, it was suggested that the Post Office should be put in the Spar shop on the outskirts of the town. When the headquarters of the Co-operative Society realised how much we needed to have the Post Office in the centre of Highworth, they agreed to make space for it in their store.

It gives excellent service, providing everything that we had in the bank except money transfers which, incidentally, can be done at the Coventry Building Society.

There is ample parking space and a whole row of parking spaces for the disabled blue-card holders and parents with young children.

They have recently opened a cafe, with sandwiches and cakes freshly baked every day and very helpful staff. They have also put in a toilet for customers.

A complaint was made that the supplies ran short during the recent severe weather. The roads were blocked so supplies could not get to the shop. The Shrivenham Road, for example, was blocked to traffic at the far end. Sainbury’s likewise ran out of supplies.

The service is excellent, the staff always friendly and helpful. I recently saw an elderly lady remarking to one that she had lost her list and couldn’t remember what she wanted. The assistant took her arm and said, “Let’s walk around together and you’ll probably remember what you want when you see it on the shelves.” It worked well, the customer very relaxed and the basket full.

Every year the Co-op donates £1,000 to a good cause chosen by Highworth.

Margaret Tuckwell, Highworth