Government policies create a vicious circle (From Oxford Mail)

Government policies create a vicious circle

10:00am Monday 14th May 2012 in Letters

I SEE that the Government is, once again, trying to cut costs by making it more difficult to claim invalidity benefit and then insisting that the people affected search for work – but where is this work to come from?

There was a time when local manufacturers like Morris Motors, Pressed Steel, John Allen, Lucy’s and Oxford University Press provided the majority of jobs but many of these jobs no longer exist.

So where are manufacturers coming from to take their place? Frankly, I don’t know.

Today we are relying on firms from Germany and the Far East for what little manufacturing we have, firms that are prepared to invest in research and development.

In this country there are some exceptions like, for instance, Rolls-Royce aero-engines and Airbus’s wing-making operation, who keep ahead of the opposition, but they seem few and far between.

I recall an American industrialist saying that the trouble with Britain is that our firms are run by accountants and not engineers and salesmen – could this be the problem?

Certainly figures I have seen suggest that the amount that we spend on research is falling.

Our difficult situation is being aggravated by a government with a policy of cutting jobs when, in the past, dealing with a recession meant keeping as many people in work as possible and, with that in mind, creating more employment by starting up important building projects.

People without jobs means less spending power which, in turn, puts more people out of work, meaning less tax is paid, making the balance of payments situation worse.

DERRICK HOLT Fortnam Close Headington Oxford

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