Keir Starmer revealed his inner Tory when he told us that there is no alternative to his planned hair-shirt cuts (Starmer hints at tax rises as he warns of ‘painful’ budget, 27 August). Apparently his policy will be to grow the economy through cuts in public expenditure – the policy pursued by George Osborne, which failed dismally because it is economic illiteracy. Peter Fuller Morpeth, Northumberland “How much a government needs to borrow and spend should be determined by the state of the economy, not by how much debt its predecessor has left it,” says your editorial (27 August). Replace “economy” with “country and its people” and never a truer word was spoken. The last 14 years have broken us as well as the country. We need a Beveridge Mark 2, not austerity lite. We need hope. Lyn Dade Twickenham, London Keir Starmer’s speech can best be summed up in the words of Enver Hoxha, the Albanian leader, in 1967: “This year will be harder than last year. On the other hand it will be easier than next year.” Derrick Cameron Stoke-on-Trent The ageing Gallagher brothers are obviously taking steps to boost their income to compensate for the fact that in a few years they will not be eligible for the winter fuel payment (Oasis reunion confirmed for UK and Ireland tour in 2025, 27 August). Toby Wood Peterborough Yuval Noah Harari warns us of the potential dangers of artificial intelligence (Never summon a power you can’t control, 24 August). I am not an IT professional, but in the event of malfunction, turning it off and on again usually works. Guy Smith Langport, Somerset