COUNCILLOR John Sanders (Oxford Mail, August 4) appears to be blissfully unaware of the fact that his own Labour government had pencilled in a 20 per cent cut in their budget plans for next year as well as a 50 per cent cut in their capital spending. They just didn’t see the need to tell the public before a General Election!

If Mr Sanders thinks the Government could continue to spend more each year than it earned, he needs to tell us how the country would survive when the national debt topped a thousand billion pounds and the international banking system down-rated our credit rating to the status of a banana republic? The cuts we are facing are paying for 13 years of a profligate Labour government that poured money into public services and growing the client state without the slightest notion of securing value for money. Outgoing Labour Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Liam Byrne, said it all in his short departure note – “There’s no money left!”.

Keith R Mitchell, Leader of Oxfordshire County Council, County Hall, Oxford