Ben's Column

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More money for tackling crime, including 20,000 extra community support officers. <br> <br> Funding for ten thousand new affordable homes a year. More investment for transport, science and defence. And a commitment to meet the United Nations target on international aid by 2013. <br> <br> This represents the longest sustained investment in public services ever. The Government can do it because Britain is enjoying its longest period of sustained economic growth ever. <br> <br> Some have claimed that Gordon Brown is being over-optimistic. But his forecasts have been repeatedly proved right in the past.<br> <br> In spite of all this extra investment, Government spending will still only be 41% of Britain�s GDP, much lower than in France, Italy or Germany and lower than it was under John Major�s Conservative Government in the mid 1990s. <br> <br> The difference is that then we were spending much more on welfare and unemployment benefits and servicing the huge national debt. With unemployment and debt now low, we can invest the money productively on things from which we all benefit. <br> <br> The Conservatives in my view, have backed themselves into a corner. They have said they will only match Labour investment on health and education. That would mean massive cuts in all other areas under a Tory Government. <br> <br> And by saying they will use some of the health and education money to subsidise the better off to go private, they are also giving the impression they are not really committed to the schools and NHS that most of us use. <br> </font></td> </tr><tr> <td height="-7"><a href="#top"><img alt="Back to Top" src="../../graphics/180601_pages/back_top.gif" width="100" height="27" border="0"></a></td> </tr> </table> </body></td></tr></table>