Sir, – As a fellow member of the Labour Party I would endorse the views of Christopher Sands (Letter, April 30th). What we get hit with mostly while out canvassing is broken election promises.
I always point out that the manifesto was for a Labour-led government, but the citizens chose otherwise so we had to trim our sails. That’s what coalition is: you wheel and deal and get the best you can. We inherited a bankrupt nation, borrowing €12 billion annually just to keep the show on the road and the moneylenders were calling the shots. As for “the cuts”, 80 per cent of government spending is on health, education and above all social benefits and you have to cut where the big spend is. Five per cent of nothing equals nothing; five per cent off the social benefits bill equals €1 billion.
So the people who would normally support Labour are the ones who are hit by “the cuts”. But there is no way around that, though as a party we have been failing to get this across to people. So Sinn Féin is having things a lot its own way, spinning the fairytales and platitudes such as “tax the rich”. People need to take note of what that party is inflicting on the citizens of Northern Ireland, where it is in power and obliged to face up to economic reality. Yours, etc,
JAMES MORAN,
Bunclody,
Co Wexford