Readers' letters: Raising employers' National Insurance contributions still hits 'working people'

The Labour Party swept to victory on a pledge to grow the economy, noting in its manifesto that “sustained economic growth is the only route to improving the prosperity of our country and the living standards of working people”.

A few short months later, and despite continuing to trumpet “pro-business” credentials, Sir Keir Starmer seems certain to hike National Insurance on employers in the Budget, hobbling already faltering economic growth.

Additional burdens on business such as this slay the golden goose of economic growth, with firms stalling on taking on new workers due to the increased costs of doing so and having less money to invest in their staff.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves delivers her first budget on October 30 (Picture: Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire)

Labour has clearly reneged on its manifesto promise not to raise taxes, including National Insurance, on “working people”. Firms are run by “working people”, with nearly all UK companies being small and many family-owned, the anchors in our local economies. This proposed tax hike makes every job in our local communities more expensive to maintain.

With faltering poll ratings, the very brief Labour post-election honeymoon with its promise of “change” is well and truly over.

Alex Orr, Edinburgh

Starmer semantics

The controversy over the interpretation of not increasing National Insurance contributions, versus not increasing NI contributions “for working people” is the kind of legal semantics that we can expect from an authoritarian lawyer, and we must also resign ourselves to the harsh truth that no amount of pleading a challenging case will alter or modify Sir Keir Starmer’s plans to “change” the way the UK is run. So, your front page article, “Starmer warned NI increase would be costly and painful” (October 16) will be ignored.

Another of his doctrinaire policies which will be forced through concerns weight-loss jabs to “boost the economy” by getting people “back into work”. Starmer has introduced this plan, putting words into the mouth of Wes Streeting, despite concerns that the injection has known, unpleasant side-effects and is only effective as long as it is taken. And yes, those benefiting from the weight loss jags will also be coached in healthy eating and the need to exercise more.

Sir Keir claims that he is concerned about the health of obese people and, of course, the pressure they put on the NHS. Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall is pressing patients with mental health problems to get them “back to work” too, for the same reasons.

I wonder what penalties obese and mentally ill people will be subjected to if they don't take advantage of Sir Keir's plans for them. I shudder to think.

Lovina Roe, Perth, Perth and Kinross

Smiles better

Being a Glaswegian is like being a member of a very exclusive (and inclusive) private club. A few years ago my English wife and I had just boarded a Heathrow flight to Hong Kong. She liked the window seat, so I was in the middle. The guy who arrived to take the aisle seat was from Glasgow, had played football for Dumbarton and like most Glaswegians was up for a chat. My wife said for the next two hours we discussed footie and the many people we both knew in and out of sport.

After the cabin lights were dimmed I dozed, woke and decided to go to the loo, only to find my new “pal” there ahead of me, so we resumed our chat. A stewardess came over to tell us she was from Glasgow too. Next up was an Australian lady who informed us her husband is a Glaswegian.

So there we were, in the middle of the night, at 36,000 feet, each having forgotten the real reason why we were outside the toilets in the first place.

I was reminded of this, this morning, when we were trying to work out how to pay for our parking in an Andover shopping mall car park. An elderly chap (like me) arrived. I asked him if he knew how to use the infernal machine. Which he did. Hearing his accent, I asked him “where are you from?” “Glasgow” was the reply. Which, of course, led to a ten-minute chat.

If you were born in Glasgow, like me, you’re a very lucky person.

Doug Morrison, Tenterden Kent

Power grab

Man-made climate change denier Peter Hopkins and his fellow correspondent Martin O’Gorman (Letters, 15 October) should wake up to why Scots are being ripped off by energy costs rather than complaining about wind farms. It was the late Alex Salmond who claimed Scotland would become the Saudi Arabia of renewables. It could be argued that a country that exports ten times the electricity it imports, with 113 per cent of Scotland’s electricity generated by renewable sources during 2022, has reached that milestone.

It’s a travesty, given Scotland is largely self-sufficient in renewable electricity, that the South of Scotland domestic unit rate remains higher than the UK average. Bills have soared in the last three years with unit rates rising more than 50 per cent. Many have invested in energy-efficient homes only to be hit by electricity standing charges rising from 20p to 60p a day over that period. With gas standing charges, that’s nearly £400 a year before any energy is used.

The OBR looked into electricity generation and found renewables have significantly lower generating costs than gas, yet with a greater renewables mix our bills are still going up. The consumer is getting ripped off by electricity being linked to wholesale gas prices as the market charges for the most expensive source of electricity. This benefits generation and distribution companies like National Grid, which returned £1bn of dividends to shareholders last year.

The SNP should be calling on the Labour government for devolution of the energy market so that consumers stop being ripped off by being charged expensive wholesale gas prices for our cheap renewable electricity. Why should Scots subsidise the UK electricity market with consumers paying more here while Scotland exports cheap renewable power?

Neil Anderson, Edinburgh

Fuel for thought

I have been reading and listening to a number of discussions around the issue of assisted dying, with some advocating the need for a more in-depth analysis and study of its effects.

Strangely, I thought the government had already started such a study with the cancellation of pensioners’ winter fuel payment.

Paul Lewis, Edinburgh

Bishop’s move

Archbishop Justin Welby has described a parliamentary bill that would give terminally ill people in England and Wales the right to end their lives as “dangerous”.

There are many complex discussions to be had around this issue but do Welby’s “slippery slope” arguments seek to mask a simpler one: that he believes only his god can give and take life ?

While this is a legitimate position for a minority of religious believers, should he and 25 other Church of England bishops have voting seats in the House of Lords?

Neil Barber, Edinburgh Secular Society

Feet of clay

Enormous respect to Alexander McKay (Letters, 15 October) for having the guts to call out endless sycophantic descriptions of the late Alex Salmond. Terms like “colossus”, “giant” and “dominated Scottish politics” etc are accurately reduced to “a large fish in a small political pond”. Unlike those who succeeded him as First Minister, the deceased had the advantage of a pragmatic streak. He was also a crafty, ruthless politician possessed of the common touch.

Mr Salmond may have been devastatingly effective in the cut and thrust of parliamentary debate, but to describe bombastic, sometimes menacing diatribes directed at his opponents as oratory is an insult to the art of public speaking.

Who can forget that bad-tempered 2017 speech following the loss of his Gordon constituency to those hated Tories? Or (along with his protégé Nichola Sturgeon) the churlish refusal to attend a service of reconciliation at St Giles’ in 2014?

Separatists regard free prescriptions and “free” university education as some of their now departed hero’s greatest achievements. Alas, we’re in the process of discovering that these policies were actually unaffordable ticking time-bombs around the necks of future administrations. Grandiose gesture politics before elections often come at a heavy price.

Martin O’Gorman, Edinburgh

Wrong priorities

I am beginning to have misgivings about the editorial priorities at ITN. On their news bulletin at 6.30pm on Tuesday, there was a feature on the World Conker Championships in Northamptonshire; but concerns over bringing the body of Alex Salmond home were completely ignored.

John V Lloyd, Inverkeithing, Fife

No credibility

The Greens are now pushing for a huge say in the upcoming SNP budget as the price for their support, with typically extreme measures asked for.

Given that the Greens have demonstrably little public support at the ballot box, how can the SNP accept their demands? Our current Scottish government is not terribly popular after nearly 18 years of missed opportunities and failed policies. The message is therefore clear that the public are not particularly “on side”.

Given this situation surely the SNP must rebuff the Greens’ budgetary “help” if it wants to maintain even a semblance of credibility?

Gerald Edwards, Glasgow

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