Letter: Miliband's policy of loans for investment is pure folly

Looked at closely, Ed Miliband's manifesto contains many expensive new commitments which can only be paid for by stealth taxes or new borrowing. Mr Miliband says that taking out loans for "investment" (which he is careful not to define) is not really borrowing at all – thereby giving himself a loophole to add billions a year to Britain's debt.

Following release of the manifesto, the Institute for Fiscal Studies made it clear that it thought Miliband's sums did not add up, stating that Labour's spending plans were "a big unknown".

Last year, a report by the Office for Budget Responsibility laid the blame for the massive budget that the Coalition inherited on reckless spending by Labour in the period that Gordon Brown was Prime Minister and Alistair Darling was Chancellor. It was discovered that lavish plans announced by Labour in 2007 were adhered to despite the onset of the banking crisis.

Even before the crisis hit, Labour was still borrowing heavily and also brought forward some capital spending plans not due until 2010-2011.

Guess who was by Gordon Brown's side at the Treasury when he drew up the plans for borrowing and spending in contradiction to the economic logic that you should always try to save money for a rainy day? – Ed Miliband and Ed Balls.

The question now is, should we believe Miliband when his record makes it perfectly clear that he and Balls would love nothing better than to throw caution to the wind and start spending money that we cannot afford?

It may be true that the prime culprits for the recent financial crisis were the bankers but Miliband and Balls must know why its impact fell more heavily on Britain than on many of our main competitors.

History suggests that when politicians make impossible financial promises, the result is almost always chaos and uncertainty – have we not learned our lesson?

J W Simmons, Muxton, Telford