YOU can’t trust a word George Osborne and Danny Alexander say.

Of course the deficit has come down since Labour was battling to cope with the banking crisis, but government debt is continuing to rise and is up by 22 per cent even on last year.

The reason is not hard to find. We are in a double-dip recession and unemployed people and loss-making companies don’t pay much tax.

The way out is to bring forward investment on homes, railways and low-carbon projects. That way people get jobs, companies make profits and the Government gets more tax.

No amount of bashing poor families and cutting benefits is going to help. Most housing benefit and tax credit goes to people who are either already in work, have a serious disability or are pensioners. It cannot be right to cut benefits when people are genuinely sick or when their company goes bust.

At the same time, the Tory Chancellor and his Lib Dem side-kick are scrapping the 50p tax on high incomes. The effect will be to cut the income tax of millionaires by at least £40,000 a year. The sooner we elect Ed Miliband and a one-nation Labour Government the better.

JOHN TANNER (Labour Cllr), Board Member for a Cleaner, Greener Oxford, City Councillor for Littlemore & County Councillor for Isis