Has the Chancellor done enough to aid recovery?

HAS Chancellor Rishi Sunak done enough? The Jobs Retention Bonus is certainly needed, and I hope many employers bring back, and keep on, workers from furlough. The £2billion for the ‘Kickstart’ scheme and £1.2billion pledge to the Department for Work and Pensions is also welcome, but it may be worth asking if that £1.2billion for DWP is purely for additional temporary job coaches in Job Centres around the UK.

On the temporary change to stamp duty, immediately increasing the threshold to £500,000, well, ok, it will help some, but I think more welcome news for residential mortgage holders could have been the re-introduction of tax relief on mortgage payments. Remember that scheme? Introduced in 1983 but scrapped in 2000, it gave borrowers tax relief for interest payments on their mortgage.

I didn’t see much support for those who have “fallen between the cracks”. Freelancers or those who were on short-term contracts, now facing unemployment.

At least some will respond to the Chancellor’s ’ “Eat Out To Help Out” discount, but just consider, many who receive only state benefits may not even be able to consider dining out. Mark Taylor, Coventry

PM’S flip-flopping about is no surprise

I CAN’T be the only one who is not surprised at Boris Johnson’s flip-flopping about.

One day he is adamant he won’t “take the knee” because he doesn’t believe in gestures and claims to be a man who makes practical differences, yet barely a day later he is on the doorstep of Number 10 clapping the NHS while failing to promise a decent rise or sufficient funding.

A man of substance? It might be funny if it wasn’t our Prime Minister. A Mcdonald, Coventry

JULY 14, 1984: Interior view of Coventry’s 14th centrury Whitefriars Monastery in Gulson Road after it was re-opened to the public following an extensive renovation.

JULY 14, 1957: “What a funny car,” these youngsters seem to be saying as they look at this 1912 Austin. It was on view at the Standard Motor Company’s Canley works following the Veteran Club’s run from Birmingham.