Cost of Labour
Sir: Jock Bruce-Gardyne's article of 12 July has belatedly come to my attention. In it he says, 'According to the City Universi- ty Business School, what is known of Labour's programme to date would be calculated to cut the dole queues by a million in two years at the cost of an increase in inflation to a bearable 61/2 per cent per annum.' We said no such thing. What our study showed was that in two years (1988) under Labour unemployment would be 221,000 lower, inflation would be 5.7 per cent a year higher and the standard rate of tax would have risen from 29 per cent to 50 per cent. These are scarcely `cheerful calculations', and if anything sup- port what Lord Bruce-Gardyne had to say. Michael Beenstock
The City University Business School, Frobisher Crescent, Barbican, London EC2
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