If we’re all in it together, don’t clobber the sick
I vote Conservative, always have done, and thought I always would. But the way that the Chancellor George Osborne has been doing his best to provide tax cuts for everybody at or near the 40 per cent tax-band – paid for by clobbering the disabled and the less well-off – is sickening. Nobody with a shred of decency will think this is the right way to treat people who are less fortunate.
For the first time in my life, I am beginning to wonder if there is some truth in the oft-mentioned comment made by Labour about the Conservatives only caring about the well-off.
Should this Government manage to give me a tax cut of any sort, I’ll donate the money to a charity. At least my conscience will be clear.
Ann Field, Davyhulme, Manchester Shame on you, Chancellor, and bravo Iain Duncan Smith for refusing to enforce cuts to disability payments. I agree that we are all in this together and that we need to balance the books, but we don’t have to attack the elderly, sick and vulnerable.
I have a very good idea that would save millions: the Government should build Travelodge-type accommodation where each MP would have their own room throughout their tenure. We’d be saving them the worry of having to find second homes or other accommodation in the capital and claiming expenses.
Name and address supplied Now that the Chancellor has to find another area of savings to help bring down the national debt after the shambolic episode concerning disability payments, may I suggest he attacks the foreign aid budget with the same amount of gusto. No one would object to cash being sent abroad for disasters such as the Boxing Day tsunami in 2004, but to ring-fence a £12billion budget at a time when we cannot afford to maintain essential services just shows how arrogant and out of touch politicians are on all sides. If it was their own money, would they continually be overdrawn without cutting back on non-essential expenditure?
John Roberts, Bradford It is great to know that within the Conservative Party we have people who are compassionate and caring. Iain Duncan Smith is such a person, a man who is prepared to put conscience before self-interest. Another man who fits that description is Michael Gove.
It’s worth noting that both these men support our exit from the European Union.
N. Woods, Chilton, Co Durham