SIR – Through April, several reports in the T&A inform us of cuts affecting organisations and ultimately people.

Doubtless the massive national debt is playing a significant part, yet it could have been very different. Can you imagine what it would be like if the UK owed £100 billion less?

In the autumn of 2008, when banks were panic-merging, the Conservative opposition in Parliament urged the Labour Government not to expand borrowing, but to moderate expenditure sensibly, keeping the country’s finance within manageable proportions.

Some moderate pain then would have meant significantly less today.

However, Gordon Brown’s Labour Party and the finance team at the Treasury, including Ed Balls and Ed Miliband, plus Alistair Darling, did just the opposite.

Why were they so stupid? Simple – there was a General Election approaching, and wanting to avoid temporary unpopularity, Labour was prepared to risk the nation to retain its slimy grip on power.

Its spin-doctors ran the mirage of temporary cushions, soft landings and extra public-sector jobs.

The country avoided the humiliation of approaching the International Monetary Fund by applying our own austerity measures, and still Labour’s deficit-deniers proclaim the Coalition has got it wrong.

Labour’s irresponsibility, our problem.

Alan Chapman, Beck Lane, Bingley