Chris Giles outlines clearly the difficulties facing chancellor Rachel Reeves as she prepares her Spring Statement (Opinion, March 20).
Her fundamental dilemma is that she can either stick to her fiscal rules or provide for the radical improvements in defence and in public services, which are needed and to which the Labour government is committed. She cannot do both. It is an evasion to pretend that there could be a rapid increase in the rate of growth which will pay for these improvements.
Since I doubt that there are sufficiently large economies in public spending to be found after 14 years of austerity, the only alternative is to raise taxes — not taxes such as those on inheritance or national insurance which raise minimal sums while yielding maximum annoyance, but income tax or VAT.
Sir Geoffrey Howe, Margaret Thatcher’s chancellor, used to say that democracy is government by explanation. A courageous government would explain that since we live in a different and more dangerous world than at the time of the general election, the rules laid down then are no longer relevant. The British public is mature enough to understand this.
Sir Vernon Bogdanor
Professor of Government, King’s College, London, London WC2, UK
