Ease squeeze now

WE have a serious cost of living crisis but the Governor of the Bank of England says he is helpless in the face of inflation. He should have turned off the printing presses instead of running off more than £4billion in cash.

The Chancellor says that we are all in it together. well, with his joint wealth of £730million, he’s not in the deep end like Joe Public.

So what’s the plan, Boris and Rishi? we’ve heard all the excuses – Brexit, Covid, war in Ukraine. The time for excuses is over – now is the time for action. As one-time PM winston Churchill said: ‘Action this day.’

Let’s take a look at the causes of this man-made crisis. fake money is in circulation, they call it borrowing, but there is no person or place that can lend that amount. food costs are rising out of control because we became over-dependent on imported food instead of encouraging our farmers to produce what we need.

Then there is the obscene cost of electricity and gas. why? Because it’s a cartel with every Tom, Dick and Harry selling electricity and gas, basically to a captive market, with an added-on green levy and VAT.

How can it possibly be that turning on your living room light and running your gas boiler for some hot water and heating have become unaffordable luxuries?

The solution? Cut the green levy. If renewable energy suppliers are commercial ventures let them do what real businesses do, raise capital from investors, not by picking the public’s pockets. why is there VAT on power and gas bills? More pocket picking.

On fuel costs, here is the real extortion – the price per litre, then fuel duty on top. To add insult to injury, more of the dreaded VAT, bearing in mind the Government has already taxed the oil producer, taken a royalty tax on the production, taxed the refiner and road taxed the transporter, with a dose of corporation tax thrown in. How much tax can they squeeze out of every pound note?

Memo to Boris Johnson, Rishi Sunak and the Governor of the Bank of England: If you can’t deliver solutions, get out of the way and let someone who can do the job.

forget about the net zero fantasy. All that will be achieved is the net zeroing of the working, taxpaying people of the UK.

Never in the cause of just living and getting by have so many people been fleeced, by so few, for so long.

DAvID M. LANSDELL, Aberdeen.