A vote for May is a vote for austerity

Very pleased to see that the outbreak of "austerity amnesia" at the New Statesman has subsided, and that, the word, even though, as Helen Lewis tells us, "has disappeared from the government`s vocabulary", still has an important place in your journal`s leading articles (Notebook,7th April,2017). At a time when the prime minister is telling us how hard her government is working to get the British people the best possible Brexit deal, she is simultaneously continuing with the callous and unnecessary cuts aimed at the least fortunate in our society. Are we expected to believe that a government which cuts the Widowed Parent`s Allowance and the Employment and Support Allowance is seriously intent on solving the problems raised in last week`s Leader about "the rising cost of health care and pensions" (The 100- year life, 7th April,2017)? When it has to make the choice of "raising taxes or closing hospitals" May`s response is obvious.

   No-one should be allowed to forget that this Tory government, and its predecessor, faced a similar choice over cuts or taxing the rich, and that they not only chose the former, but accompanied it with reductions in taxes for the well-off! When Tory MPs supported May for leader, their interpretation of "a safe pair of hands" meant someone who would continue with the same austerity policies which hurt no Conservative voters. They were right!