UNDER David Cameron the Conservatives pursued the objective of eliminating Government borrowing, and then reducing the National Debt, which costs taxpayers a lot of money in interest charges. Whilst austerity alone was arguably not the best way to achieve this, surely not passing on the debt burden of years of profligate Government spending to our children was a worthy objective?

Theresa May tried to follow the same policy, but the vote to leave the EU, and the subsequent uncertainty over Brexit, stalled the economy, and progress was slow.

Now Boris Johnson seems to have abandoned this idea altogether, and the expectation is that the forthcoming Budget will see more Government spending, fuelled by yet more borrowing, presumably on the basis that once the UK is no longer restrained by EU regulations, the economy will flourish.

Unfortunately the overwhelming majority of financial experts predict the exact opposite, in which case all the years of hardship caused to so many by austerity will prove to have been in vain. So much for responsible Conservative government!

Alan Jordan, Middridge.