Labour cannot be trusted to rebuild Britain The slogan for this week's Labour conference in Manchester is "Rebuilding Britain." Is this supposed to be a joke? After all, this is the party that squandered a golden economic legacy during its 13 years in office, leaving the country deeper in debt than at any time in its history? This is the same Labour Party that sold our gold reserves at rock bottom prices, wrecked one of the world's best private pension systems, encouraged record levels of immigration and presided over a reckless and self-serving expansion of the public sector. Under Labour, a culture of welfare dependency became so deeply ingrained that it is almost impossible to shift, education standards fell and state services were undermined by an obsession with centrally-determined targets. Even the new schools and hospitals built under Labour were mortgaged to future generations, paid for through PFI programmes that have been of woeful value to the taxpayer. For Labour to promise to rebuild the country is like an arsonist expecting to be thanked for offering to re-erect the house he has just razed to the ground. Invariably at this point in a Parliament, voters are concerned about how the Government is doing; but memories are not so short that they will be taken in by Labour's brazen efforts to erase the recent past. Ed Miliband, the Opposition leader, and Ed Balls, the shadow chancellor, have been giving pre-conference interviews intended to demonstrate that they are different from the Eds who sat in the Cabinet just over two years ago. Mr Balls says that a future Labour government would scrutinise every penny of public spending to ensure it was both essential and providing value for money. Why should anyone believe that when similar claims were made by Labour in opposition before and ignored in office? While Mr Miliband has made some important policy announcements about breaking up the banks unless they increase lending and reforming the "rip off" energy market, he shows no signs of abandoning Labour's tax and spending instincts. He suggested yesterday that in reducing the 50p tax rate to 45p the Government was "writing out a £40,000 cheque to every millionaire" and that he would therefore reintroduce it. This betrays the classic Labour view that earnings belong to the state which then benevolently dispenses sums as it sees fit. Similarly, Jon Cruddas, Labour's policy chief, has acknowledged the party's failure to respond to worries about immigration and "something-for-nothing" welfare payments. Next time it will be different, say party bosses, assuming there is going to be a next time. Yet why should Labour be entrusted to rebuild the country it so comprehensively vandalised?