WHEN the coalition Government came into office in 2010, they made much of their economic competence; one of its promises was to eliminate the UK’s national debt by the end of this Parliament.

They have failed to do so.

In ushering in an era of unprecedented austerity, they have conferred misery on millions of people unnecessarily.

In addition to this, the Tories claim to be the party of low taxation — however, this Government is the highest taxing government ever.

They have achieved this by dramatically increasing the taxes of the majority of people and at the same time cutting taxes for the very rich.

Thanks to George Osborne’s inept handling of the public finances, by 2019 the UK will be spending 3.8 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on debt interest payments — this is more than we spend on all our schools in the country.

Their budget deficit reduction strategy also has not worked. In May 2010, the public sector net debt, which is the total amount that the UK spends, stood at 57 per cent of GDP and is now at 77.3 per cent of GDP at the end of June 2014.

The total public sector net deficit is now a staggering £1,304 billion owed to the Bank of England, UK banks and building societies and 30 per cent to overseas creditors.

This works out at roughly £50,000 per household in the UK.

The Government’s failed deficit reduction strategy has seen more than 350,000 public-sector workers (local government staff, teachers, nurses, doctors, paramedics, police, firemen, social workers) lose their jobs in the four years they have been in office.

The old adage about ‘death and taxes being the only certainties in life’ is, of course, true.

The question we must all answer is this: How much are we, as a country, prepared to pay for the sort of society that benefits us all, not just the few?

Cllr John Stockton Warrington