Decent Tories must be aghast at their party’s populist turn

I am not at all surprised that Trevor Bonner in his recent letter feels so angry with the Conservative Party (Thursday), to which he has cast his vote for most of his life. As a “lifer” in local government I knew the majority of my bosses were Conservatives, but they treated their staff with decency and respect and would not have countenanced their party turning into such a populist and meanspirited one. But somehow this party has morphed into this right-wing entity and its perceived people-pleasing modus operandi. Of course, there are still decent Tory MPs, who are probably aghast at the trajectory of their party.

Trevor is correct, the dehumanising rhetoric surrounding the most disenfranchised men, women, and children in this world is not worthy of this party and needs to stop. As he rightly states, far more countries are housing extra refugees and giving them sanctuary, without this ghastly song and dance. They would pay back this country in manifold ways, if only they could be treated like human beings. Turn the rhetoric dial down to a compassionate and proactive one and watch the difference.

No returns policy

So, Suella Braverman is to visit Rwanda again (for the third time, she states). It will be interesting to see how many tens of millions of pounds she intends to gift the Kagame government

this time. I do wonder if the only way she can be more successful than Priti Patel’s dealings with Rwanda is by wasting even more taxpayers’ money than her predecessor. At least her flight will have the dubious distinction of actually delivering someone there, is it too much to hope that the Home Office has overlooked booking her return flight?

Alistair Vincent Address supplied

What is the Labour Party frightened of?

Jeremy Hunt’s Budget is presented in context and that context is Brexit. It has damaged living standards and will continue to constrain both the economic growth and the living standards of this country for at least a decade.

Brexit was a deceit, founded on Boris Johnson’s “oven-ready” lies. It does not work. The chapter may be closed, but the book is not. We are not obliged to conduct our future affairs in an environment created by falsehoods because we made a bad mistake once. Our democracy can change its mind and in the light of dire and ongoing experience, reliable polls suggest it has. If a referendum on a 4 per cent majority was democratic and sufficient to take us out of the EU a referendum on a 4 per cent majority is equally democratic and sufficient to take us back in.

What is the Labour Party frightened of? Are we denied, out of red-wall fear, a referendum originally and mistakenly granted out of right-wing fear? Stop the mealy-mouthed equivocation and offer the public the option healthy democracy entitles us to.

David Nelmes Newport

The BBC is still the best

I noted the content of Jerry Wells’s recent letter to The Independent with dismay and disagreement. I wonder if Jerry has watched Line of Duty or Happy Valley or Gold to name but a few,

all of which have been subject to huge plaudits from the viewing public.

Yes indeed, other channels have presented some very good programmes, all of which are heavily interspersed with adverts, imploring you to sell your car or place a bet. Mr Wells may disagree, but I do not believe that I am alone in finding it very annoying whilst watching a serious programme to find it interrupted by frequent adverts.

The BBC has its faults, but so have the commercial providers. I have viewed TV all over the world and the BBC is far and away the best I have seen.

Pension pots

The current debate about public service (and in particular doctors) pensions seems to suggest that they are an unearned bung to the rich. Let’s be real – this is not the case. There is no actual pot of money– merely a theoretical one based on an arbitrary calculation of anticipated pension multiplied by a large number of expected years. This means that a rise in pay, for example by doing extra sessions, can push the alleged pot over the arbitrary limit and make it liable to a penalty.

The accrual limits are even worse – again a calculation of a theoretical rather than actual pot increase is used to justify a real-time tax charge on current earnings – being taxed in effect on future income you may never actually get and which will be taxed again if and when you do! Add in the factor that you are already paying increasing proportions of your salary to the pension scheme anyway and it is hardly surprising that people opt out rather than work harder and longer for nothing.

Mike Margetts Kilsby, West Northamptonshire

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