Readers' letters: There may be justification for a wealth tax after all

In his letter of July 23, Alan Woodstock advocated a wealth tax on the “increasing number of billionaires” and the millionaires in the UK to plug a £2.5 billion-£3.6bn funding gap which would allow the two-child benefit cap to be lifted.

As a capitalist I initially scoffed at this socialist notion, especially when a Google search revealed that the number of billionaires had dropped from 177 in 2022 to 165 in 2024. But then I discovered that there are also 2,849,000 millionaires on these shores.

If each of the millionaires contributed a mere £1,000 per annum in addition to their present taxes that plugs the gap with only 0.1 per cent taken from their wealth.

Should billionaires and millionaires contribute a little more to the Treasury's coffers? (Picture: John Devlin)

If the billionaires contributed a similar proportion, that would be £1 million each, which does sound a lot and caused me to cringe, but there would be something far wrong with their investment management if they weren’t making at least 20 times that in annual returns.

On the other side of the coin, we are spending £3bn a year in housing migrants in hotels. That’s what makes a wealth tax a hard sell!

First we’ve got to stop all the government waste, benefit fraud and people of working age not bothering to seek employment before exploring the justification for a wealth tax.

It would be interesting to hear the perspective of a millionaire on this and also JK Rowling or Sir Tom Hunter.

Michael Officer, Bridge of Earn, Perth and Kinross

Birth control

I read daily reports that the Government is coming under increasing pressure to lift the two-child benefit cap. However, I am wondering where this increased pressure is coming from as when polled about this 60 per cent of voters did not want it changed. It was also not so long ago that environmentalists were advocating limiting families to two children to help save the planet.

Unlike decades in the past, women and men today have unlimited access to birth control products and education. This means that having children is now a deliberate choice in the majority of cases, and like any choice the consequences need to be taken into account and accepted.

The Government is being blamed for causing child poverty through not lifting the cap but no criticism is being levelled at the parents choosing to have more children than they can afford. Raising children is financially difficult and the government can only help with so much of the costs and so it is the responsibility of every adult thinking of having children to basically only have as many as they can afford.

Paul Lewis, Edinburgh

Time to go

At the recent election, the SNP thought that banging on about their pet aim, which is to break up the UK, could be achieved with just “one more push”. Well, they tried it with the independence referendum and lost by a wide margin.

John Swinney then made it an aim to try to claim that the election vote was a referendum on Scottish independence. It wasn’t, of course, but the facts are plain. The people of Scotland have had enough of the SNP’s extremism and incompetence. If the SNP had an ounce of honesty, they would hold a Scottish election now. It would be in keeping with their claim that recent Conservative Prime Ministers weren't elected. Well, neither was Mr Swinney as First Minister. Now, having suffered a massive loss of seats in the election, they are wasting yet more of our money. Another £14 million is being spent on the failed Ferguson Marine ferries!

On top of that, the SNP are squandering even more money on hare-brained “reports” which are being produced by civil servants, who are public officials, not employees of the SNP. Our taxes are paying for nonsensical “Building a New Scotland” papers about independence even though the SNP have been utterly rejected at the ballot box.

There should be an immediate inquiry into the scandal of mis-spending of public funds by this discredited administration. Just as Mr Swinney hoped to win the election in Scotland and immediately to embark upon negotiations about independence, it has turned out to be a comment on the rejection of the SNP by the people of Scotland and they must go.

Andrew HN Gray, Edinburgh

Pension promises

In his letter (July 23), Grant Frazer welcomes the findings of the Wellbeing pension plan, and refers to the SNP pledge that on gaining independence the basic state pension would rise to European levels.

There’s just one wee flaw. According to his fellow SNP supporters, and even some politicians who really should know better, the rest of what was the UK post-independence would continue to pay Scots the pensions they currently receive.

So what becomes of old fogies like me? Will I end up getting a post-Brit pension with a Jock top-up?

Andrew Kemp, Rosyth, Fife

Fair day’s pay

The SNP government is planning to eradicate poverty by instigating a policy of Minimum Income Guarantee (MIG), which would give everyone a minimum income of £21,000 – 60 per cent of the median wage of £35,000.

The snag is that the median wage is gross and the 60 per cent is take home pay. If we look at take home pay as the benchmark, then £35,000 becomes £28,500 after tax, and 60 per cent is £17,100. Someone working full-time, working 35 hours a week at £12 and hour, would earn £21,800 per year and £18,400 after tax. How many people will bother working if they can get as much money on welfare?

The question is where will the money come from other than taxes, and we are already taxed more than the rest of the UK.

What would we pay a 25-year-old single person who does not wish to work – the same as everyone else?

There is also the law of unintended consequences. Everyone would want to come to Scotland to enjoy our wonderful welfare system, and many of the high earners would flee to England to escape the increase in taxes.

This policy is well intended but smacks of pseudo-communism where the state does everything and the population becomes institutionalised.

Once again the SNP shows its true face – tax, borrow, spend and waste.

James Macintyre, Linlithgow, West Lothian

Destiny delayed

Almost exactly 100 years ago, on July 15 1924, David Kirkwood MP introduced a proposal for legislation in Parliament for the permanent transferral of the Stone of Scone from Westminster Abbey to the Palace of Holyroodhouse.

The proposal, after fairly lengthy debate, passed in the Commons by 201 ayes to 171 noes. Yet the proposed Bill unaccountably got no further, until ts revival more than 70 years later. I have yet to find a reason why this should have been so.

Hamish Allan, Edinburgh

Alaskan invasion

Vice-presidential candidate J D Vance asserted “I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine one way or the other” and former president Trump appears ambivalent at best – hardly an affirmation of their proclaimed Christian beliefs or leadership of “the free world”.

Moreover, while not an exact analogy, would they also “not really care” if Russia invaded its former colony Alaska, for which the USA paid them a mere $130 million, at today’s prices, in 1867?

John Birkett, St Andrews, Fife

Hype overload

We have barely recovered from the media hype of the recent British election. Do we now have to endure another four months of yet more of the same prior to the US presidential election farce in November?

SR Wild, Edinburgh

Ticking clock

It has become very clear from all of the Government’s announcements since winning the election that every ill is the fault of the last Tory government.

Sir Keir Starmer, as highlighted in his vacuous contribution following the King’s Speech, will have a very short time to provide answers and policy solutions to all of these “ills” that beset our country.

With just 34 per cent of the vote at the election, further platitudes from the likes of Cooper, Lammy, Phillipson and Streeting simply will not wash. They will be judged on deeds not words and they should be aware that the clock is ticking.

Richard Allison, Edinburgh

UK’s not hated

May I reply to Stan Grodynski's attempt at a critique of me (Letters, July 23)? After a short stint in the Navy, ending around 1970, I worked in the offshore oil industry for the best part of 25 years.

In that period, I lived and worked in Brazil, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Alaska, and elsewhere and in fact was a resident of Japan for the best part of ten years. I lived and worked and sweated with many hundreds of people of multiple nationalities, some of whose countries had once been part of colonial Britain.

Never once, not once, did anyone reminisce about how wonderful it was to be free of British imperialism and in fact most spoke warmly of the UK and wanted their children and grandchildren to be educated there. I was proud and happy to carry a British passport.

The only place I have found hatred of the UK is among nationalists in Scotland. And that is perfectly epitomised by Mr Grodynski’s letter.

Alexander McKay, Edinburgh

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