SIR – Mike Foster MP has criticised the Tories’ pledge to cut public services but the Government and the Lib Dems are determined to do the same.

Nick Clegg has said his party would make “savage” cuts to the public sector. Brown announced at the Trades Union Congress that he will cut public services. Indeed, New Labour has pushed through more privatisation and outsourcing than Margaret Thatcher ever dared dream of.

Why should the public sector pay the price for bailing out the banks?

Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the PCS civil service workers’ union, said: “Yes, a Tory government would deliver an onslaught on the public sector. But the reality is, so would a Labour government.”

Serwotka has urged people to fight for an alternative, which is “not to cut public spending, but to collect taxes. It’s about making the rich pay their share.”

New Labour and the Conservatives are, whatever Mike Foster says, two sides of the same coin.

Neil Laurenson
Worcester