Readers' Letters: Double standards of Labour high heidyins is disappointing

When Boris Johnson was Prime Minister, the people of this country were provided with some of the greatest examples of political irony seen for many a long year.

During the Covid lockdown when tight restrictions on the movement and gatherings of people were being enforced by statute, we learned that they were not being applied as rigorously to the occupants and employees in Downing Street. The irony was that although it was those people who had made the restrictive laws, they themselves appeared to have had virtual carte blanche to ignore them – as demonstrated by the infamous Downing Street parties and the “eye testing” trip to Barnard Castle undertaken by Dominic Cummings.

Like many people I assumed that when the Tories were decanted from power in July the days of “one rule for them and another for us” were over. Thanks, however, to Sir Keir Starmer and senior members of the Labour Cabinet, it seems that the days of political irony are still very much with us. Rachel Reeves had hardly stepped inside her office at the Treasury when she announced the ending of universal entitlement for pensioners to the Winter Fuel Allowance payment.

Sir Keir Starmer says it's fair to take away WInter Fuel Payment from OAPs who don't need it, but he - a millionaire - is happy to take a £14,000 donation to pay for a study space for his son, notes reader (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)

Labour's rationale for this was that better-off pensioners don't need it.

Not long after that announcement, news began to emerge that Starmer and other senior Labour figures had been accepting individual monetary donations from a multi-millionaire donor for the purchase of clothes, spectacles and, in one case, to pay for a birthday party. The latest revelation, that Starmer had accepted a £20,000 donation from the same source so that his son could be provided with accommodation to enable him to study for his exams “in a peaceful atmosphere” was, however, probably the most breathtaking.

In view of the reasoning provided by the Labour Party for the ending of universal entitlement for pensioners to Winter Fuel Allowance, ie “some people don't need it”, I don't know if the irony of the current situation has been lost on Starmer. That he, a millionaire several times over, can deny thousands of pensioners a payment of £300 to heat their homes this winter on the basis of his opinion that they don't need it, yet see fit himself to accept £20,000 worth of accommodation so that his son could get a bit of peace and quiet to study for exams does take some beating! If Charles Richter had devised a system to measure double standards instead of earthquakes, this one would be off the scale.

Jim Finlayson, Banchory, Aberdeenshire

Changed reality

As the Labour Party conference closes, lets pause and reflect on what voters have learned about the new Labour Government at their first conference since taking power in 15 years. Well, conference did not get off to a very good start with all the headlines focusing on the sleaze of “freebies”.

But moving on, it was over to new Chancellor Rachel Reeves, who was conspicuous by her silence on going after bankers’ bonuses. Ms Reeves told conference there will be tough decisions to be made, but they will be fair. Ms Reeves’s idea of “fair” got a clear message on the last day of the Labour conference when unions voted against the actions of the Chancellor by opposing the withdrawal of the Winter Fuel Allowance from a million pensioners.

Incidentally, while Ms Reeves was on her feet at conference the nursing unions turned down the Labour Government’s 5.5 per cent pay offer, so watch this space on public spending to follow. Throughout the conference, freebies remained in the headlines, so no lessons learned.

The Labour Party’s election message to the country was vote for “change”, yet change was not what voters heard from this conference. Unfortunately, the message echoed that of the Conservatives’ 14 years of austerity and for so many who were taken on by the message of change, reality is dawning.

Catriona C Clark, Banknock, Falkirk

Be careful

The speakers at the Labour Conference keep talking about the 14 years of Tory mismanagement, but they never talk about the 13 years of Labour mismanagement, 1997 to 2010.

Gordon Brown introduced a number of policies – tax credits etc – which were fine as long as the economy was booming, but when the economy stalled in 2008 the tax credits etc continued without money to fund them. When Brown left in 2010 borrowing had increased from £340 billion to £830bn, the deficit was £156bn and it took the Tory government five years of so-called austerity to bring the economy to stability. On leaving, one Labour wag left a note on the Treasury desk saying: “here is no money left.” What a surprise.

We can only be sorry for all these people who voted for Change now they are getting it.

James Macintyre, Linlithgow, West Lothian

Same mistakes

Before the Thatcher years, nationalised industry and services became a byword for strikes, poor service and lack of investment in new processes and products.

With this new wind of change blowing across the country there is a distinct whiff of moves to release the engine of government management across a whole swathe of working people’s lives again and I wonder if we really learn from history at all.

I am not suggesting that the privatisation has been an unmitigated success, far from it, with the subsequent loss of potential earnings siphoned off overseas as our assets are sold off willy nilly as those managing business take the cash and run.

Privatisation was thought to bring the private sector and competition into play, removing the dead hand of government with its neverending competing interests for taxpayers’ cash and removing the constraints on ongoing maintenance costs of aging infrastructure by accessing funds that were not wholly attributable to or offset against government borrowing constraints.

What’s not to admire in the intent? But like most good intentions, this one required a clear understanding of the long-term impact of unbridled loss of control and the decades of government that got lost in day-to-day minutiae, and failed to monitor how the real engines of growth – namely those assets that produce wealth rather than just spending it – were being used and abused.

So we now turn to the dead hand of nationalisation rather than trying to understand why the experiment of privatisation lost the plot while beggaring the country and its people, which any competent government would do prior to reverting to the failed system of the past.

Quite simply, government removed what should have been ultimate control of our assets to refuse sales that were to the detriment to skills and employment in this country and allowed greedy capitalists to do what they always do – make money by buying and selling assets with no regard as to the impact on others or our country. This has happened quite clearly as our industry was offshored to China, with loss of quality jobs and skills, our energy infrastructure funded and owned by overseas entity etc.

Is there a way back? Of course there is, it’s by utilising the billions in our pension funds to buy back control. Yes, it’s hard to consider but it’s a cost that poor government since the Thatcher years has inflicted on us, leaving us in this awkward and difficult position.

Now we have elected a government that obviously doesn’t have a clue and wants to renationalise everything again we hold our heads and worry for our children’s and countries’ future.

A Lewis, Coylton, Ayrshire

So negative

Richard Allison’s optimistic forecast for the UK economy (Letters, 26 September) is undermined by data from the Office for National Statistics published on 11 September, showing that the UK economy recorded stagnation for a second consecutive month in July while Scotland outperformed the UK as a whole as our economy grew by 0.3 per cent and the Scottish data does not include offshore oil and gas extraction.

The UK economy may have exited recession, but exiting the EU has cost the UK economy £140 billion, according to Cambridge Econometrics, yet Labour still opposes membership, with Keir Starmer insisting that the UK will not rejoin either the EU, the single market or the customs union within his lifetime.

Fraser Grant, Edinburgh

Gael force

Gaelic road signs are a wonderful idea because they stretch people’s knowledge of Gaelic vocabulary. This may strengthen a culture and language which once reached most corners of Scotland and planted itself in names still with us – Balerno, Milnathort, Dunfermline, Auchinleck, hundreds more.

The late Finlay Morrison is best known as a star golfer who played in the 100th year of his life. He was also the teacher of Gaelic who told me Gaelic had for a time been spoken in some places which are now in Northumbria.

Surely this culture and language are worth reinforcing for the future, not out of rivalry at any other culture in the land, but because Gaelic is genuinely one half of Scotland’s diversity. There is one true observation in the astonishing assault by broadcaster Andrew Marr. Places whose population has never called them by a Gaelic name should not get any confected Gaelic name now. That practice is fantasy history and reeks with banality.

The historic reach of Gaelic far beyond the the present Gaeltacht should be tended as the immense national treasure it is. I hope modern electronic media can play a part in making the Gaelic language part of young people's lives.

Tim Cox, Bern 6, Switzerland

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