Readers' Letters: Stop subsidising the billionaires

The cost of a new No10 conference room for Boris Johnson - seen in the Cabinet Room - has raised eyebrows (Picture: Getty)

In recent weeks we learned of huge profits made by a few people supplying PPE to the NHS. There was the £2.6 million bill for a new conference room inside 10 Downing Street. Politicians happily ordered an increased stockpile of nuclear warheads while insulting nurses with a 1 per cent wage increase.

Some NHS staff in Scotland were concerned about accepting the £500 Covid thank you bonus as it would take them over the limit for housing benefit and other subsidies they need to survive. Many shop workers and delivery drivers who put themselves at risk of death to keep us supplied with food during lockdown also rely on Government subsidies to maintain a basic standard of living. The reality is that we are not subsidising the workers, but billionaires raking in massive profits while paying poor wages.

When the current pandemic is under control are we to accept going back to living to work instead of working to live? Instead of buying more weapons of mass destruction we could double the real living wage and make that the minimum wage. Cut the working week to three or four days and instantly create millions of unsubsidised, tax-paying jobs. Cap maximum wages at ten times the minimum paid in any organisation. Tax high profits, forcing companies to invest in development and their workforce.

As for those making personal fortunes flogging windowless hotel rooms at vastly inflated prices and selling Boris Johnson a room make-over for the cost of a mansion, why not lock them up for profiteering at a time of crisis and sack those who employed them in the first place?

John F Robins, Bainfield Road, Cardross, Dumbarton

Pray for immunity

We were deeply worried to learn that, in the name of “religious freedom,” a judicial review had ruled in favour of some Scottish churches’ demand to be allowed, uniquely, to open for communal worship.

Lord Braid concluded: “Restriction on religious believers goes beyond a mere inability to attend a lunch club." Does anyone have the right to prescribe a hierarchy of value in types of social contact?

Church leaders have said that the ban was “dangerous for Scotland”. It was certainly inconvenient for church attendees but the judge emphasised that he was not saying worship was safe. The only danger is in the arrogant faithful spreading the virus to other people who have made sacrifices of their own.

Neil Barber, Edinburgh Secular Society, Saughtonhall Drive, Edinburgh

Neverending story

Alex Salmond is exacting his revenge in a slow and calculated manner by carefully taking his time to take legal action, bit by bit, in order to savour the revenge at the way he was treated by the party he loved.

Nicola Sturgeon is desperate to draw a line in the sand finally ending the endless inquiries and reports regarding the Alex Salmond affair but to date no-one has been reprimanded or sacked for the shortcomings of the Scottish Government which cost the Scottish taxpayer lots of money.

Dennis Forbes Grattan, Mugiemoss Road , Bucksburn, Aberdeen

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