THE REASON for the big squeeze is quite simple. International Monetary Fund wanted it. At the meeting in Manila of one thousand delegates of the world's top banks and finance minstries, IMF chief Dr Johannes Witteveen commented that the squeeze was a step in the right direction'.
The Government admit freely that the IMF has written the first paragraph in the "Letter of Intent' to which they have to stick to get the $3.9 billion stand-by loan to protect sterling against the speculators. The first of the IMF articles of faith reads that the money supply must choked off.
The effect on the working class will be a further boost in mass unemployment up to 2 million as the price of borrowing shoots still higher for small firms still struggling with cash problems. The enormous increase in mortgage repayments, also pushed up by the measures, will further cut down on the living standards of home-owners, particularly white collar workers.
The massive burden of debt to the finance houses and big banks incurred by national and local government will be increased by the higher rate of interest which Government is prepared to pay to the finance houses and banks in return for the sale of Government issued stocks to 'mop up' surplus money. Blown The assurance that Healey gave Parliament that the Government's economic strategy has not been blown off course is nonsense.
IT IS A LIE that the policies of Labour Government can decrease the level of unemployment to 'only' 700,000 by 1979. The trend is up, not down.
IT IS A LIE that inflation will be down to single figures by February. The rate of inflation in imports of raw materials went up at an annual rate of 40 per cent in September alone. Wholesale prices went up at an annual rate of 15 per cent in September.
IT IS A LIE that no further radical cut-backs will be made Labour Government. The IMF sees this as only the first step to a further reduction of the public services: a step which would involve redundanport-led boom that will lead Britain The Tories and a