According to The Press Theresa May has “declared an end to the age of austerity” (The Press, October 4).

Her actual words were: “When we have secured a good Brexit deal for Britain, at the spending review next year, we will set out our approach for the future. A decade after the financial crisis, people need to know that the austerity it led to is over and that their hard work has paid off.”

Not quite the promise The Press made it out to be.

Firstly, there is no guarantee that she or the Conservatives can lead us to a good Brexit deal.

Secondly, the end to austerity is still some six months away according to her rhetoric.

Thirdly, there is no guarantee her own Tory MPs will allow the Brexit plan, as envisaged by the PM, to proceed any further if she insists on following her Chequers plan, and also no guarantee that the EU will accept her proposals.

The pledges she made at her party conference, while welcome and long overdue, were not new pledges of increased spending on health and housing but re-announcements of previously pledged increases in pending on our hard-hit services.

The housing crisis, by the way, was caused by one of her predecessors, namely Margaret Thatcher, and the then refusal by the Tories to allow councils to use capital receipts from the sale of council houses to build new council houses.

H F Perry,

St James Place,

Dringhouses, York

Working wonders with what we had

Now that “austerity” is officially over and the great and good can pay themselves what they feel entitled to it might be opportune to recall what the word meant to our mothers and grandmothers.

In 1945 when the war ended a mother with three children under 18 was entitled to buy, to feed all four for one week:

  • bacon/ham (450g/1lb)
  • sugar (900g/2lb)
  • tea (225g/8oz)
  • meat (225g/8oz)
  • cheese (225g/8oz)
  • butter (225g/8oz)
  • sweets (335g/12oz)

Fresh fruit and vegetables were not rationed when available. Fish was not rationed to preserve the fishing industry although it was subsequently handed over to the EU. Bread was later rationed as we no longer had the money to buy grain overseas.

To be honest I do not believe anyone felt deprived if only because the womenfolk worked wonders with the little they had.

A V Martin,

Westfield Close,

Wigginton, York