George Osborne and Alistair Darling
On Friday, 58 senior economists published two open letters in the Financial Times arguing for a delay in spending cuts until 2011. The world-class economists say that any measures to trim the budget deficit this year could pull the country back into recession and they believe that “the first priority must be to restore robust economic growth”.
Now, 38 Degrees has teamed up with the Trades Union Congress to put pressure on Alistair Darling, Chancellor of the Exchequer and George Osborne, Shadow Chancellor, to publicly commit themselves to not making damaging cuts before it’s clear that the economy really has turned the corner towards recovery. We’ve already had a brilliant response: thousands of us have signed the petition since Friday.
The financial crisis has already damaged the lives of thousands of people across the UK. Unemployment remains high at 2.46 million and our recovery is only in its early stages. It is crucial, as Lord Layard, emeritus professor at the London School for Economics pointed out, that there are no “government cuts until we’ve seen the recovery well under way and unemployment on its way down.”
Join in to protect our economic recovery and avoid a disastrous “double-dip” recession. Click here to sign the petition to the Chancellor and Shadow Chancellor http://www.38degrees.org.uk/dont-risk-the-recovery
