GEORGE Osborne’s election pledge to eliminate the deficit by the end of this Parliament has proven to be wishful thinking. Despite all the cuts and pain caused by his ongoing austerity measures the deficit is still with us. This is hardly surprising as history informs us that Tory chancellors are good at causing recession and rubbish at reducing deficits.

Readers will remember the three home-grown recessions of previous Tory governments, and the now infamous Black Wednesday where the then Tory chancellor Norman Lamont increased interest rates to an eye watering 15 per cent, destroying the economy condemning millions to the dole queue, while pushing many home owners into negative equity, Mr Lamont called it a price worth paying. Clearly Osborne has learnt nothing from his predecessor’s mistakes, or the global financial crash. A crash that started in the U.S subprime mortgage markets and led to the fall of huge American financial institutions, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Lehman brothers, resulting in a global credit crunch. We now have an economy built on low wages, cheap money and a housing bubble fuelled with millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money. Osborne’s so called recovery is a house of cards built on huge personal and government debt, which will tumble as soon as interest rates rise, as they surely will.

Cllr Nigel Dix Montclaire Avenue Blackwood