No debate about it: time’s up for idlers in ermine

The Lords are taking the mickey out of the rest of the country, whether by trying to thwart Brexit or just turning up, signing in, collecting their £305-a-day expenses and then traipsing off without making a contribution to running this country.

Root-and-branch reform is needed, but here are a number of changes that could be put in place straight away.

To qualify for expenses, Lords should have to spend at least six hours a day in the house.

This allowance should be subject to tax and be adjusted in line with average London pay.

And any Lord who doesn’t speak in a debate for three consecutive months should be thrown out. FRanK HaDDocK, Doncaster, S. yorks. A SeCOND chamber is essential to encourage MPs to do their homework and not make costly errors. however, the present house of Lords is incapable of asking searching questions because so many of them are failed MPs or their bag-carriers.

The house of Commons has former lawyers, accountants, bankers and insurers, but lacks scientists and industrialists.

The house of Lords is the ideal place for such people to be appointed for five to ten years by an all-party committee.

Inventor James Dyson, Wetherspoon’s Tim Martin and JCB chairman Anthony Bamford would be well worth their £305 per day.

g. M. gibSon, okehampton, Devon.

Indy won’t let us grow

The SNP’s Growth Commission report does little to convince businesses in Scotland that ministers are fighting their corner.

With Brexit likely to be followed by a further independence referDOeS endum, we are again heading into a period of artificially protracted uncertainty that will inflict economic damage and curtail the competitiveness of business.

It still beggars belief that our Government’s economic strategy is to cut ties with Scotland’s biggest market. We trade four times as much with the rest of the UK, so it doesn’t make business sense to introduce barriers.

SBUK fears that economic success for Scotland is being held captive by a political attitude of independence at all costs.

It is time for Scotland’s businesses which share these concerns to voice them loud and clear. RobeRt KilgouR, StRuan StevenSon, JacK PeRRy, Scottish business uK (SbuK).

Taxes? Give us a break

The Growth Commission report seems to advocate incentives – including tax breaks – for workers moving to an independent Scotland.

As such, Scottish workers who currently pay more income tax than their counterparts in the rest of the UK would find themselves paying more tax than the person working right beside them. Does the SNP have any plan for dealing with the mass exodus of homegrown talent who will leave for pastures new, where they won’t be the highest taxed workers on this small island? a. MoRRiSon, Dyce, aberdeenshire.

Open-and-shut case

WITh all the bank branch closures in towns and villages, why can’t the financial institutions open a banking hub they could share?

My nearest branch is now 15 miles away. Still, they did apologise for the inconvenience.

e. cHanDleR, Radstock, Somerset.

Air Force Boris

BORIS JOhNSON has called for his own plane to help him drum up trade after Brexit (Mail).

A better idea would be a new Royal Yacht. Britannia was a floating symbol of the best of British, a floating ambassador. teRRy McDonalD-DoRMan, Middleton St george, co. Durham. The money for Boris’s plane would be better spent on police on the beat, more nurses and a better care system.

Who does Boris Johnson think he is? The U.S. President on Air Force One? Steve geRRaRD, york.