Not true to say that cuts are unavoidable

Islington is a borough of deep inequalities, and the Green Party believes this is harmful for everyone who lives here, whether richer, poorer, or somewhere between.

But government policy continues to do nothing to address the issue, with income inequality across the country greater now than at any time over the past three decades.

Many ex-Labour Party supporters are bitterly disappointed that 13 years of Labour control only widened the divide left by Margaret Thatcher’s Tories.

And the evidence now points clearly towards the Coalition’s cuts hitting the poorest hardest and accelerating this deeply damaging trend.

These cuts, however, are driven by ideology rather than economic necessity, and you don’t have to be a “deficit denier” to see there is another way – with Green Party policies showing that the country could pay off its debts without harming those most in need of help from vital public services.

Alarming as it might be to serial tax evaders and avoiders, for example, closing tax loopholes and preventing tax avoidance could alone raise literally billions of pounds, and would be welcomed by the public, who recognise it as unfair for the wealthiest individuals and corporations to avoid paying their full share.

Greens would also place a transaction tax on the banks and make cuts in the places where huge sums of public spending really are wasteful, such as the Trident missiles and excessive executive salaries in the public sector.

It is simply untrue to say that cuts to frontline services are unavoidable, but Labour and the Coalition’s records and policies speak for themselves.

Only the Green Party has a credible line on why these cuts are both unjust and unnecessary. – Caroline Allen, Caroline Russell and Andrew Myer, Islington Green Party.