Express & Star

LETTER: Do we want a controlling state?

The terrible situation in Venezuela reminds us once more that the state cannot be trusted to run everything.

Published
Jeremy Corbyn

Children are starving, inflation has reached the stratosphere and people are leaving by any means at their disposal.

As with the people of Eastern Europe in the post-war period, there is repression and denial of freedoms.

All of this is explained away by the Labour left and those close to Corbyn as being the result of US sanctions. Sadly for them, there have been no sanctions up until last week, so the cause must reside elsewhere and indeed it does.

On coming to power Chavez introduced a massive social justice agenda, paid for by oil revenues. Sadly, however, his spending went way beyond the level of oil revenues flowing in.

The problem was then made worse by falling oil prices which served to increase the gap between Chavez’s spending commitments and the money available to him from oil revenues. The final nail in the coffin was the regime’s chosen response. They simply printed more money so the spending could continue.

This is the direct cause of the economic meltdown, bringing hyperinflation and massive shortages of food and medicines. We must reflect on all this in light of Mr Corbyn’s response.

It would be going too far to suggest he would wreak such chaos here but clearly, he relishes state control and planning and let us be honest there is no evidence to support the contention that such an approach is economically effective or protective of liberties we take for granted. We must take full account of Corbyn’s total support for this indefensible regime and its disastrous policies.

Taken together with his failure to act on anti-Semitism in Labour, his alleged consorting with Irish terrorists along with leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah, suggest he is unsuitable to be PM.

Corbyn it seems is wedded to a belief in nationalisation and state planning which will by its very nature increase the tax burden on all even higher than its present record level.

The question is, do we want a big controlling state and can this succeed in enabling the wealth creation needed to support it?

Martin Bristow, Wolverhampton