IT HAS been interesting over the past few weeks to see county councillors Susanna Pressel and Keith Mitchell battle it out in the letters page as to who is responsible for the cuts.

Pressel tells us it was the greedy bankers, while Mitchell tells us it was the previous Labour Government’s mismanagement.

This Punch and Judy battle is all about shifting the blame away from the parties they represent, Labour and Conservative.

Of course the truth is it’s both.

Labour did deregulate the banks – something our local MP Andrew Smith was a prime mover in as Chief Secretary to the Treasury. That was fundamental to allowing rogue bankers to speculate beyond the means of their institutions.

It was Labour which then went on to issue a virtual blank cheque to the banks on the understanding that the tax payer would pick up the bill in public spending cuts and tax rises.

Labour’s proposed cuts programme package was actually bigger than that which the new government has actually made.

Faced with a £186 billion deficit, the coalition ignored the fact that a large proportion of this was held in bank share equity and the proportion of national debt was still modest by European standards.

However, they saw the opportunity to focus public spending cuts on their old enemy – the welfare state.

They did not consider cutting out Trident replacement, cancelling the building of two new aircraft carriers, stopping the doubling of pilot-less drones or going ahead with costly nuclear power subsidies.

Their solution was not to tax the rich by stopping corporate tax avoidance, but to cut public spending on education, welfare, local government and to tax the low paid through VAT increases.

The Government has done nothing to address the issue of re-regulating the banks, other than ask them to be nice to people, especially over Christmas.

Of course all this is supported by the Lib Dems who are propping up this rapid return to Victorian principles of self-help and draconian cuts in public services.

We now have Jean Fooks (Lib Dem) urging us all to save the libraries. The hypocrisy of her stance when the Lib Dems have been so adamant that these cuts must be made does not seem to bother her.

There is a real alternative to these cuts but it does not rest with the three main parties.

David Williams, Leader of the Green Party Group Oxford City Council, London Road, Oxford