JAMES Alexander bemoans the cut in state funding for City of York Council as “political vandalism”.

While he is right about this, it is rather disingenuous not to mention the fact that a Labour government would have done largely the same. Does Coun Alexander think that our memories are really that short?

Before the last General Election, Labour’s Chancellor, Alistair Darling, suggested that if they were re-elected Labour would bring in cuts worse than those seen under the Thatcher government.

The reason for this was that New Labour, like the current ConDem administration, only ever looked to solve financial problems by cutting spending rather than by raising tax on the very highest earners.

It was this same slavishness to business that led to the deregulation of the banks and the money markets, with consequences that we are still living with today.

As a member of both the Green Party and York Stop the Cuts, I would welcome any genuine conversion away from neo-Thatcherism to real progressive politics on the part of Labour. As such, I invite Coun Alexander to attend the next York Stop the Cuts meeting, at 7.30pm at the Black Swan tonight.

Owen Clayton, Young Greens Liaison Officer, York Green Party.