Gordon's modest squeeze

Anthony Giddens is wrong to call for tax cuts (A third way budget, February 29). Tax cuts will mean further job losses in manufacturing, because they will lead to rises in interest rates and an even higher pound. The chancellor has a modest fiscal squeeze in the pipeline, due to the end of mortgage tax relief this April. Tightening his stance a little will take the pressure off interest rates and stop the pound soaring to more unrealistic levels on foreign exchange markets.
John Edmonds
General secretary, GMB union


Labour's welfare policies have typically served two groups - the mass of the population (most people want good quality health care and education) and poorer minorities (benefits for unemployed people, lone parents, low-income pensioners and so on). Lower taxes benefit the better-off and will further increase the already widening gap between richer and poorer. Giddens' objective is to pay for better mass services. Does the third way involve abandoning the poorest and most vulnerable groups to gain the votes of middle England?
Peter Taylor-Gooby
University of Kent
P.F.Taylor-Gooby@ukc.ac.uk


Gordon Brown says there are jobs available for everyone who is unemployed (Brown tells jobless to fill vacancies, March 1). Would he like to advise those who have been made redundant and who are experienced and qualified but aged in their late forties and fifties exactly how they even get to the interview stage, thanks to the rampant ageism amongst most employers?
M Melville
Coventry