In his statement to the County Council Cabinet on the medium-term financial plan, Councillor Gould was right when he said that, irrespective of whether Labour or the Tories form the next government, “The austerity climate is one thing we can be certain about, whatever the outcome of the general election”.

He was right, not because there is no alternative to ‘austerity’ policies after May 2015, but because the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and Labour have all adopted policies which impose a cap on welfare spending and severely reduce budgets for public services and local authorities.

The people of West Dorset should be under no illusion that this ‘austerity’ is inevitable.

Things could be very different if the enormous private wealth in our society was distributed more fairly.

The Green Party will be the only party going into the general election with policies which reject the need for ‘austerity’ and which would significantly increase funding to local authorities along with greater devolved powers to use this funding to develop local communities.

These policies include a financial transaction tax, a 1 to 2% tax on personal wealth of over £3m, a removal of the ceiling on income on which National Insurance is paid, an increase in the highest rate of income tax and a reduction to £100,000 as the level of income above which this tax applies.

In one of the richest countries in the world, with 104 billion-aires, the wealth exists to fund excellent public services and provide financial security for all of us.

It was the bankers who crashed the system in 2008 and who were bailed out by the British people to the tune of £1.2 trillion. Those in power have been using this crisis as a rationale for slashing funding for public services, privatising them by stealth and starving local authorities of cash. Greens say: “There is a socially just alternative.”

Peter Barton Green Party Parliamentary Candidate for West Dorset