The packed benches of Conservative MPs cheering to applaud George Osborne’s statement last Wednesday give the lie to local Tory claims (Reading Chronicle, October 21) that these brutal cuts are down to Labour’s “financial mess”.

The truth is that the Tories are making these cuts because that is what they came into politics for. The LibDems are supporting them because they have been so completely absorbed by the Tories.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies has shown that the cuts will, despite what George Osborne claimed, hurt the poor and more vulnerable in society most. They will be particularly hard on women, who will lose twice as much as men.I don’t know if Reading’s Tory MPs were among those cheering, but it doesn’t seem to me that there is much to cheer about.

Mary Waite

Kidmore Road,

Caversham