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Labour is failing the vulnerable
The Labour manifesto, written prior to the last election, said nothing about cutting pensioners’ winter fuel allowance or cuts to the benefits of disabled people.
What it did include was a plan to clamp down on tax avoidance/evasion.
The government now hopes to cut annual welfare spending by £5billion by 2030 (Metro, Wed) and yet has watered down plans to end non-dom status – which previous chancellor Jeremy Hunt said would raise £2.7billion a year.
Non-doms are UK residents whose ‘permanent home’ for tax reasons is abroad so they only pay tax to the HMRC on money earnt here.
It is quite obvious that the Labour leadership is more interested in hobnobbing with the rich than ensuring disabled people are able to do more than simply exist.
Is it purely coincidental that welfare benefits for the disabled are being slashed shortly after the introduction of the bill on ‘assisted dying’? Martin J Phillips, Leeds
Austerity by another name
‘Have we got a Labour government or just Tory-lite’
However work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall tries to dress it up, reducing spending on benefits for the sick and disabled means a return to Tory austerity that will hit already struggling families hard.
Patriotic millionaires have been asking to pay higher taxes for some time, so why doesn’t the government indulge them and stop going after budgets such as foreign aid and those helping the sick/disabled?
The big banks, hedge funds and power companies could all pay higher taxes and probably wouldn’t even notice.
Have we got a Labour government or are they just Tory-lite? Chris, Stockport
Disability benefits are a lifeline, not a handout
‘Living his life is a full-time job – and now the government is handing him a massive pay cut.’
I have a nephew who receives about £400 a month in personal independence payments (PIP) – which fewer people will receive under Kendall’s plans.
Judging by what the government has said, he will have his PIP withdrawn.
I can assure you that he has earned every penny of that money and then some. I’ve seen how much effort it takes him to get out of bed in the morning, how hard it is for him to help out around his family’s house (he still does it, because he’s generous and determined, but it’s painstaking) and how much work he puts in towards being healthy again.
Anyone with a heart or a brain can see that, despite his drive to contribute to the world, my nephew would not be able to hold down a job.
But he does a huge amount of extra work every single day in comparison to his able-bodied peers – a lot more than £400 a month’s worth.
Living his life, and trying to recover from his illness, is a 24/7 full-time job, and he should be paid for it. His workload should’ve earned him a lot more than he gets currently.
As it stands, this government is about to hand him a massive pay cut that will make it much harder for him to get better, and will put a massive strain on his family’s struggling finances.
The Labour Party’s name betrays its origins in the trade union movement, fighting for fair wages and conditions for workers. It’s high time they remembered their roots. Sharon, Manchester
Cutting red tape isn’t the answer
‘we need to change our language’
I sympathise with Sir Keir Starmer’s desire to replace backroom paperwork with frontline workers, but I resent him complaining about ‘inefficient bureaucracy’ and ‘flabby’
public services.
It just smacks of that outdated, misguided neoliberal idea that the state is inherently wasteful and that everything is done better in the private sector.
The insanity of the water industry and the failure of outsourcing (among other things) demonstrate that this is nonsense but in order to fully free ourselves from this dogma, we need to change our use of language.
‘Bureaucracy’, ‘regulation’, ‘tax’ – these should not be dirty words. All of these things are necessary and beneficial in varying quantities. If Labour keeps dancing to the Tory tune of ‘cutting red tape’ and shrinking the state, they will allow that irrational right-wing ideology to capture our political discourse.
Labour will be reduced to stealing Conservative clothes and we will be stuck with a political class under the daft and dangerous illusion that spending cuts are the only way to fix the country.
That said, given the government’s recent announcements, perhaps we are already past that point. JWA Caley, St Pancras
Trump’s Ukraine peace deal makes no sense
‘Donald Trump’s involvement in the Ukraine peace deal…’
Donald Trump’s involvement in the Ukraine peace deal can be compared with a situation where a woman is walking alone on the street and a mugger attacks her. As she tries to fight him off, a cop approaches. She expects the cop to arrest or chase off the mugger, but instead the cop takes her handbag and walks away. Andrew, Hornchurch
Fixing pot holes: look to Sweden
‘Perhaps a couple of their engineers could be invited over.’
Further to the news that it would cost £17billion to fix UK potholes (Metro, Tue).
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A 200-mile walking/cycling visit to the Swedish municipality of Simrishamn found only two 15cm potholes.
One could see that, where cracks had appeared, a strip of tar 500mm wide was used to cover it and fine gravel laid over it. If the crack reappeared the process was simply repeated – it was demonstrably effective and cost saving. A stitch in time perhaps. Perhaps a couple of their engineers could be invited over. Or maybe we set up a quango’s holiday there – it is a beautiful place. Robby, Kent
Metro is too ‘woke’ for me
‘woke and snowflakery’
‘You are more likely to be published if you provide your name and location with your comment’ glibly states the silly, ‘girlie comic’ that is Metro. Perhaps you should also add ‘provided it is woke and snowflakery’? Goodbye. Anon, via text
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