What do you think?
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fighting a losing battle with planning permission to establish such a vital service.
It seems nobody wants such a lorry park in their own backyard, though they are a vital service to the community at large.
By contrast, she has driven HGVs all over Europe where facilities and free parking are second to none.
But there is still a shortage of drivers on the continent, so this country will have to offer something really special to attract them over here.
Britain has a lot to learn in treating our Knights of the Road with the respect they deserve.
Inconsiderate boy racer car drivers curse the lorries on the roads and so easily forget that a 40-tonne artic can’t just stop on a sixpence.
I’ve seen for myself the impatience of some car drivers who lose their rag at the bin men who have to keep stopping and starting to keep this essential unappreciated service going.
Some HGV drivers are paid extremely well but they in turn pay a high price for keeping the country going.
Nights away from their families and lousy facilities when they stop overnight mostly in a sleeper cab and inconsiderate motorists are just part of the price they pay for the ‘privilege’ of keeping the country going.
Is it any wonder it’s hard to get HGV drivers, especially women in these days of equality, until they are treated with the respect they deserve?
Edward Kynaston
Lydney Gloucestershire above that. Those over £150,000pa not only don’t receive the £12,750 allowance anymore (which I believe is wrong, as it should be ‘universal’ even if the percentages are tweaked instead) but they pay 45%.
Those above the lower rates also pay chunky penalties on dividends, never receive child allowance, and pay top capital gains tax rates, as well as suffering swingeing tax penalties on larger pension pots which are typical with larger earnings.
The 14% to which he refers does not mean all those who pay income tax above 20%, so it doesn’t include the experienced nurses, etc, he lists.
I don’t agree with the blanket National Insurance surcharge either though. It is blunt and swift but that doesn’t make it the ideal way of raising revenue.
If we agree extra tax for care costs is necessary, then it could have been applied to all forms of investment income (including rentals) but why target dividends alone and also charge it to employers and employees? Taxing jobs and raising prices isn’t helpful. By all means charge wealthier older people extra income tax too, as sadly (we) are the older ones most likely to need care (and the poorer ones would still not pay any tax).
As a financial adviser too, I can assure him that most state pensioners who work do so because they choose that, not because they must. Most should also have private pensions to bolster their retirement incomes and if they have worked and don’t, then that is not the system’s fault but theirs, without being unkind.
Even those with no earnings can contribute £2,880pa to a personal