Ahead of Wednesday's (9th December 2009) Pre-Budget Report, LEAP has published its latest Red Papers: The Cuts. The papers provide an alternative to the cross-party consensus on public sector cuts and show the damage that could be wrought by the cuts agenda.
John McDonnell, LEAP Chair, said:
"The effect of the scale of cuts being suggested in the Pre-Budget Report, and by opposition parties, would mean horrific cuts in vital services and more unemployment. They offer no solution to the economic crisis, just cutbacks in public spending not seen since the 1930s.
"Yet none of the main political parties is willing to look at a serious increase in the tax take – either by increasing redistributive taxes or tackling large scale tax evasion and avoidance."
Andrew Fisher, LEAP Co-ordinator, said:
"The finance sector that brought the global economy to its knees in 2008 and 2009 will be written out of the story in 2010 as a new consensus solidifies among the Westminster elite that the real crisis is public sector debt.
"This is an economically illiterate consensus which will only serve to entrench recession and wreak misery on millions as people lose their jobs and public services are cut. Any solution must tackle the causes of this crisis, and the public sector did not cause it."
Download the LEAP Red Papers: The Cuts
LEAP is a collective of left economists that publishes pamphlets and reports, organises conferences and blogs regularly on economic issues from a left-wing perspective. The attached ‘Red Papers: The Cuts’ published today contain contributions from Graham Turner, Gerry Gold, Jerry Jones, Andrew Fisher, Richard Murphy, Dave Wetzel and John McDonnell MP.
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