ALTHOUGH I am a Labour voter and will continue to be so, like The Northern Echo I have no great faith in Ed Miliband and Ed Balls running the UK economy.

They remind me of two seals flapping about in the sea, making a lot of waves but with no idea of where they are going.

Ed’s idea of freezing energy prices would probably be shot down by the European Union anyway.

For George Osbourne’s austerity plans to work, then millions of people are going to have to be prepared for pain, hunger and poverty. There is simply no other way.

Government debt currently stands at £1.1 trillion and every year that there is a budget deficit which is forecast to carry on until 2017-18 at least. Not only that, but the interest on the debt which is the Government’s third biggest spend is also increasing.

To get where he is today the Chancellor has frozen wages and some public services. This will continue for several years.

Meanwhile, all the time, inflation will be eating away at the household budget. The experts say inflation is running at approximately 2.7 per cent yet we all know that for food, energy and transport costs it is much higher than that. Some of the food items that I buy at the supermarket have gone up 30 per cent. The Chancellor is hoping that the economy will take off, but it will only take off if people have money to spend. At the moment, they haven’t and 26 pubs closing every day is evidence of that.

John Phelan, Howden-Le-Wear.