Readers' Letters: Budget shows Westminster playing games with people's lives

In the UK Budget the Conservative government continues perpetuating inequalities and cutting public services. They have made a massive cut to Scotland’s budget, with the lowest level given since devolution.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt delivered the UK Budget on Wednesday (Picture: Stefan Rousseau - WPA Pool/Getty Images)

Their figures on the national debt fail to convince, with, for example, new money created by the government or money it owns added in. Index-linked bonds are not repayable now and costs needs to be in instalments, not all at once. There is no need to pay interest on new money to banks.

Changing the rules on interest would save billions and apparently enough for the Green New Deal, so desperately needed for the future. The Bank of England needs to cut interest rates – also needed to prevent an economic crash.

There is no need for austerity and destroying schools and the NHS… the idea that the UK has a finite amount of money is not true and is rejected by many economists. There is an arbitrary limit put on borrowing, which is about changing one form of money to another, not anything else. This is now just 3 per cent. But there is no science behind this figure.

Again, for political not financial reasons the Conservative government has a cap on welfare spending. There is no other cap on any other government spending. This hits the most vulnerable and is cruel.

Resources need to be brought forward for the nation with a different model. There needs to be investments in state education and the public NHS and the government needs to stop harming the planet and create food security. They should stop spending millions on breaking the law and trying to harm people, as in their failed Rwanda plan. The Budget is to help the nation, not play games with arbitrary figures.

Pol Yates, Edinburgh

Bashing the poor

The well-trailed 2p cut in National Insurance Contributions (NICs) has dominated the Budget headlines, amounting to a net tax cut of £9 billion. However, this is dwarfed by Tory stealth tax rises of an estimated £27bn that came into effect last year, and a further £19bn coming in after the election. The tax burden is now at a 70-year high, and people have taken an unprecedented hit to their living standards in recent years. Those earning £19,000 or less will now be worse off because, as more of their pay is dragged above the frozen tax-free allowance of £12,570, they’ll lose more than they gain from NIC cuts. The biggest gainers are those earning £50,000, meaning that this is a Budget that will hit the poorest hardest. Looking over the longer term, the average wage after taking account of inflation will take until 2026 to get back to its 2008 level – nearly two decades of lost pay growth.

Beware the Budget smoke and mirrors. The Chancellor is giving with one hand and taking more with the other – a stagnant budget from a stagnant Government.

Alex Orr, Edinburgh

Poll problems

Martin O'Gorman is bang on the money (Letters, 6 March) when he expresses considerable doubt about the results of an opinion poll which purported to show 50 per cent support for Scottish independence. First of all, there is only one poll that matters and that has been held, produced a clear outcome and is not going to be repeated.

The outcome of polls, as a number of commentators have said, depends in great measure upon the question(s) asked. The result of a referendum or an election can be in doubt right up to the wire, as Dewey's reported win against Truman in the 1948 US presidential election proved. The result of the 1970 UK election was widely predicted to be a win for Labour. The same applied in 2014, despite a late, rogue poll result, but the defeat of the SNP in its "once in a lifetime" referendum was clear.

In 2011, the SNP and Labour only really differed in the former's support for independence and the latter's for maintaining the Union. The voters wanted the SNP’s left-wing policies and got them. They didn't want the associated bid to break up the UK. Until the SNP understand that, they will always be frustrated because they cannot see the blatant truth in front of their eyes. The Scottish people still tend to elect left-wing parties, but they do not want the break-up of the UK.

Andrew HN Gray, Edinburgh

Joint defence

Bill McKenzie (Letters, 2 March) is out of touch with the reality of those engaged in protecting shipping in the Red Sea. He asks: “Why is it only the UK and USA who are in the Red Sea doing something to stop these attacks, risking lives and ships at great expense, while the rest of Europe does nothing?”

To put the record straight with facts rather than anti-Europe rhetoric, in addition to the UK and US there are currently French, German and Italian naval vessels from EU countries actively engaged in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. In addition Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands and New Zealand are credited by the US and UK with supporting defensive operations against Houthi attacks. As I write this an Indian Navy destroyer is assisting the crew of a container ship fighting a fire after their ship was hit by a Houthi drone earlier today.

It’s not just the US and UK doing something to stop Houthi attacks!

Regarding supporting Nato, several EU countries are spending as much or more on defence than the US and UK as a percentage of their GDP – the measure adopted by Nato. Let’s focus on facts rather than anti-Europe prejudice.

Geoff Tompson, Helensburgh, Argyll and Bute

Use levy wisely

I was reassured to read that Edinburgh is likely to introduce a long-overdue visitor accommodation levy, bringing us in line with most tourist destinations across the world.

On the other hand it is dismaying to hear that the gathered revenue might be used to fund a replacement for the Ross Bandstand in Princes Street Gardens. Priorities are important so it will be vital initially that funds are used to address the serious neglect of our road/pavements, introduce a meaningful clampdown on littering and review our shocking refuse disposal arrangements in the city centre which other comparable cities covertly manage to avoid. I live in hope!

Mike Dunsmore, Edinburgh

Deaths on A9

Murdo Fraser’s A9 dualling observations are well founded (Perspective, 6 March). Promise after promise as to when the work will be completed has been broken, late 2035 being the latest forecast. Because of the Scottish Government’s dilatory approach the original £3.2 billion cost will, at the very least, have doubled by then.

Humza Yousaf has the gall to emphasise his “determination to see the A9 project completed”. His then Transport Minister Jenny Gilruth blamed Brexit, Covid, Ukraine and the UK mini-budget – forgetting only Uncle Tom Cobley –as the reasons for yet another delay,

Show me an SNP promise which has ever been kept. Too busy daydreaming about an independence which can never happen, Ministerial competence fails the test every time. How many more deaths must there be on the A9 because neither Yousaf nor Nicola Sturgeon have kept their worthless promises?

Doug Morrison, Cranbrook, Kent

Music for Putin

“The best way to break up the British state is for Scotland to become independent.” announces Hugh Kerr (Letters, 5 March). This statement will be music to the ears of the world’s totalitarian powers, who regard Great Britain as one of their worst enemies.

Mr Kerr and those like him are doing Vladimir Putin a favour by undermining the UK, a staunch ally of Kyiv. As for Mr Kerr’s admiration for George Galloway, let’s remember that the newly elected MP for Rochdale heads the Workers’ Party of Britain, not the Workers’ Party of Scotland. We’re even told that Mr Galloway (a Unionist) “might be rethinking his position on independence.” Mr Galloway once dismissed the case for Scottish separatism as “Nonsense on stilts.” Despite his numerous shortcomings, at least he got that right.

Martin O’Gorman, Edinburgh

Dirty job

The news five members of the SAS are being investigated for war crimes in Syria brings to mind the shrewd observation, often attributed to George Orwell, that we only sleep safely in our beds because rough men stand ready to do violence on our behalf. Our special forces risk injury, death and, if captured, unspeakable torture fighting on our behalf against Islamist terrorists who recognise neither the Geneva conventions nor any moral restraint on their depraved misbehaviour. These terrorists do not wear any uniform or badge of identification, unlike military personnel. To expect our soldiers to treat them as if they were enemy soldiers is wrong both practically and morally. Indeed, it is insanity to treat this type of warfare as if it was some sort of international armed policing.

The duty of military lawyers, commanding officers and our government is to watch the back of those who guard us while we sleep, not to prosecute them.

Otto Inglis, Ansonhill, Fife

Save the US

We now have the prospect of the world being controlled by two madmen, Putin and Trump. If Trump becomes president again he will sell Ukraine down the river, leaving Putin to take what he wants of Europe. God help us all

US politicians simply don’t have the will to challenge and win against corrupt individuals like Trump, who is not fit for office and is playing the eager-to-win Republican Party for fools. When are intelligent quiet Americans going to speak out and wise and honest people going to come forward to save America?

Les Howson, Edinburgh

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