Alternative to austerity to be found in Paradise Papers? | Letters

One day's headlines shows how the UK's struggling public services are desperate for funding, writes Linda Rhead. Surely, she says, it is connected to the tax-avoidance scandal in the same edition. While Richard Carter says Theresa May's failure to tackle tax avoidance could make her look complicit

Guardian 15 November: page 4, Squeezed NHS must close dozens of services; page 5, Armed forces no longer fit for purpose, former top brass warn; page 8, Poorest squeezed as food price inflation hits four-year high; page 10, Police poised to ignore minor crimes, MPs told; page 16, Eating disorder patients waiting months for care. Five articles in Wednesday's Guardian outline the catastrophic consequences of the Tory government's austerity policy, on the NHS, the armed services, the poorest families and the police. In Monday's edition, 5,000 headteachers wrote asking for relief from more damaging cuts to education. What does the media have to do to get the prime minister and the chancellor to see how wrong these policies are? Maybe the "Plea to halt 'industrial scale' tax avoidance" (page 1, 15 November) could offer a hint at a possible alternative.
Linda Rhead
London

" When significant figures from both sides of the political divide like Margaret Hodge and Andrew Mitchell agree that bringing in the sunlight by making public the names of all the people hiding behind offshore shell companies, it's clear that real action is needed (Analysis, 15 November). But what do we get from the government? Quoted in your front-page report, Mel Stride, financial secretary to the Treasury, repeats the desperately tired and empty old boast that "the UK has led the world", in this case, supposedly, by dealing with tax evasion and avoidance and increasing transparency.

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