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Letter of the week
Dear Editor
Very distressing to see the Chancellor of the Exchequer crying in Parliament. We all suspected things were bad but didn’t appreciate things were that bad, and bad news inevitably leads to tax rises. Difficult time for someone trying to balance the books, so here’s a few ideas:
Scrap the Covid Inquiry. It costs £137,000 a day, so we could save £90million by the time it’s finished. Nobody trusts their conclusions anyway.
Stop the boats and leave the ECHR, saving £8million a day supporting illegal immigrants.
Scrap Net Zero and save £10Billion. If it transpires that man-made CO2 is not the cause of climate change, we are all going to look rather silly.
Scrap or reduce foreign aid save £7Billion.
Scrap HS2. No one wants to get to Birmingham 20 minutes quicker; save £4 Billion.
Stop supporting Ukraine and save £18.3Billion. Instead, promote peace talks to end the war.
I’m just trying to help poor Rachel; sitting next to Sir Keir every PMQ is enough to have anyone in tears.
David Jameson
All our eggs in a digital basket
Dear Editor
Following on from the NHS 10-year plan, I despair at the idea that so much reliance will be made on so-called smart phones. It’s a great mistake.
We all know how fragile networks and hardware can be, but I resent the idea that I’m being forced to use a medium I have little interest in. The NHS systems, just like the banks, are prone to hackers, plus of course big systems suffer big outages when upgrade problems occur.
I can’t help but say that the government is more than a little green in putting so much emphasis on smart phones without at least providing some backup methods of doing what these apps will do.
With the advent of digital IDs, this will only make losing a phone or being unable to use a phone so much more critical. Why are they putting so many eggs in one basket?
Are you listening, government ministers? We don’t want our whole lives run from apps on smart phones, without which we will be immobilised. Pleaseensure that there are alternative ways of using the NHS and that our lives are not put on hold when something goes drastically wrong with computer systems or the phones!
Bryan Harris
Swanley, Kent
Harmonies and hypocrisies
Dear Editor
The sheer double standards demonstrated at Glastonbury this year, where hundreds of thousands of people, most of whom still like to preen themselves as good, peace-loving, friends of the earth and all its creatures, were persuaded to enthusiastically chant, along with the performers, cries of approval of the murder of Israeli soldiers, was breathtakingly blatant.
It’s their sense of self-righteousness that allows them to behave in this appalling way, without experiencing a single shred of guilt or regret, whilst simultaneously charging and prosecuting those with whom they do not agree with ‘criminal hate speech’ should they express the least demur.
But this hypocrisy is not as new as it might seem. Around fifteen years ago, I was in a theatre production employed as a nightclub pianist, accompanying a girl singer. We were playing mostly Gershwin and Cole Porter standards in an extended ballroom scene.
During one of the rehearsal breaks, I was gently noodling with a slow-ballad version of ‘Rule Britannia’. The verse melody of this tune, when set against the descending bass line is actually very pretty when played slowly and I was playing very quietly, trying to imagine how Bill Evans might have played it (in my dreams!). To my astonishment, an Irish lady in the cast, once she recognised the tune it was based around, objected loudly, bossily ordering me to, ‘Stop playing that hateful tune. That anthem of British Imperialism.’
Nobody else in the cast was in the least bit bothered about it, but despite that, they took her side on the grounds that since it appeared to genuinely upset her, I would have to stop and play something else instead.
I’m pretty sure that had she had started singing:
‘From Saggart to Clonmore, there flows a stream of Saxon gore.
O, great is Rory Óg O’More, sending the loons to Hades.’*
Had I objected to this, they would have told me to shut up, stop making a fuss and smiled benignly and benevolently at the sheer romance of a woman feeling entitled to get pleasure from still celebrating the killing of British soldiers 400 years ago.
Brian Meredith
*From the Irish ballad ‘Follow Me Up to Carlow’, celebrating the Battle of Glenmalure (1580) in which a 3,000-strong English army were defeated.
All chevrons point to economic disaster
Dear Editor,
The final act in the UK’s renewables fantasy sees oil giant Chevron closing its Aberdeen office and production, after 55 years of North Sea operation and bringing jobs and wealth to Scotland. This will deal an economic blow to Aberdeen itself, and cause a wave of associated business failures and job losses elsewhere.
Other oil and gas majors will surely follow, as it is pointless to stay when no new drilling licences will be issued, and the punitive windfall tax on North Sea profits makes continued operations impractical.
Scottish independence was to be built on oil and gas wealth. That wealth is now being destroyed by a questionable cult that worships the weather as a source of energy, and wants Britain to persuade an industrial world to do likewise.
Although it gives lip service to renewables, that world has decided to use fossil fuels for its own prosperity, while Britain’s example – as well as being ignored – is now steadily unfolding as our own economic suicide.
Malcolm Parkin
Dodgy shoulder? Have a car!
Dear Editor
The Motability Scheme is the Government/taxpayer-backed programme that hands out cars in exchange for PIP benefits.
In 2024 alone, £600million was funnelled from the Department for Work and Pensions straight into the Scheme.
As of April, 589,550 claimants have taxpayer-funded cars. These are some of the ‘conditions’ listed by those currently on the scheme.
Brace yourself….
Food intolerance: 20 cars.
Failure to thrive: 10 cars.
Tourette’s: 230 cars.
Frozen shoulder: 150 cars.
Drug misuse: 220 cars.
Alcohol misuse: 770 cars.
Generalised anxiety: 1030 cars.
Stress: 20 cars.
Depressive disorder: 7460 cars.
Obesity: 800 cars.
Dyslexia: 320 cars.
Tennis elbow: 40 cars.
Is it any wonder that the number in receipt of Personal Independence Payments (PIPs) has almost doubled in six years? (2.1million to 3.7million)
10 per cent of working-age adults are on benefits. There are 1000 new PIP applications every day, which is no surprise, when you consider PIPs are not means tested, tax free, can be claimed even if you are working and can be paid for a fixed period of ten years.
For the small minority who want to play the system, it is an easy benefit to apply for to get free money from the taxpayer.
An eye watering £26.5billion was paid out to PIP applicants in 2024/25.
Cllr Brian Silvester
Crewe
Gas bills and gaslighting go hand in hand for Miliband
Dear Editor
Mr Miliband says that Net Zero will add around £100/pa to household
electricity bills, totalling £1.25billion for 30million homes.
Before installing a heat pump, typically costing £14,000, many houses will need insulation improvement, which can cost up to £44,000 according to a recent Sunday Telegraph article.
The cost of a heat pump, plus new pipework, radiators and insulation, could be >£40k in many cases. Add upgrading of the domestic electrical supply – to carry the loads of a heat pump load, EV chargers, new electric cookers, power showers & increased use of immersion heaters – and many households could be facing a total of >£50,000 (i.e. £2000/pa per home over 25 years).
Next comes the cost of upgrading the local electricity system, including distribution transformers, followed by upgraded grid capacity, with new generation and transmission equipment. All of that will have to be covered by Green Tariffs applied to our electricity bills, if not via taxation. We continue to be gaslighted.
Roger J Arthur
