Letters: Tax cuts are welcome – but they don’t mend years of broken promises

SIR – The problem with Jeremy Hunt’s “biggest business tax cut in modern British history” in his Autumn Statement is that it follows the biggest rise in corporation tax since 1974, presided over by this Government. What’s more, given the “cut” is simply to make the currently temporary measure of full expensing permanent from 2026, it is unlikely Mr Hunt will be in a position to keep his promise, given the polls. 

Michael Howard (Comment, November 22) lauds Rishi Sunak for resisting “large pay increases” to keep a lid on inflation, yet the Prime Minister has just mandated a huge, potentially inflationary rise in the minimum wage, another major cost for businesses and hence consumers. 

Meanwhile, Mr Hunt states that “we need a more productive state, rather than a bigger state”, yet commits to increased public spending, after years of reckless expenditure and increasing debt from a Government elected to achieve precisely the opposite. 

The difficulty for Mr Hunt is that the good things he announced in his rather underwhelming Autumn Statement, including a reduction in a national insurance rate that the Tories had previously increased, are overshadowed by years of broken promises. No pre-election bribes are likely to alter the fortunes of a party that ceased to be conservative a long time ago.

Tim Coles
Carlton, Bedfordshire

SIR – At the beginning of Jeremy Hunt’s Autumn Statement, the tax burden was the highest since the end of the Second World War. By the end of his speech, the tax burden remained the highest since the end of the Second World War.

Tinkering with a number of reductions across certain areas of taxation did nothing to make most taxpayers feel better off in the face of the cost of living crisis. Many others will feel worse off, as the freeze on tax thresholds continues to drag middle- income earners into a higher tax bracket. 

Mr Hunt’s 110 measures were too many and spread thin, and did little to alter the failures of the past 20 years. Perhaps a Spring Budget will address them.

David Saunders
Sidmouth, Devon 

SIR – The Chancellor seems unwilling, or unable, to recognise that the Treasury receives more tax when people are allowed to decide how and where they spend their own money.

The personal allowance and higher rate thresholds have been frozen up to and including 2027-8. It would have been sensible to increase these with immediate effect.

Graham W Swift
Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire

SIR – Did Jeremy Hunt lose a page of his Autumn Statement? Is inheritance tax still with us?

John Pritchard
Ingatestone, Essex

Councils’ eco-delusion

SIR – Oxford City Council seems to think that banning the installation of gas hobs and boilers will help to tackle the “existential threat of climate change” (report, November 21). This notion is utterly ludicrous  –  just as ludicrous as most net-zero initiatives, which will burden businesses and households with excessive costs, to negligible environmental benefit.

Few, if any, have a mandate for this type of action. It’s high time that some realism and central-government control were imposed to prevent councils’ unilateral eco-justified actions, which seem rather more about control than genuine environmental benefit.

Ian Ross
London SE25

SIR – The light-bulb saga is an allegory of our times.

Our old, incandescent bulbs had to go, so fluorescent bulbs were mandated and forcefully implemented at great cost. These were both unpopular and unfit for purpose. Happily, they were replaced by LED bulbs. What we now see in transport, home heating and power generation is the same dash to get rid of the systems we depend on currently, and to mandate new technologies long before they are ready to be applied.

A target of reaching net zero well before 2060 should be feasible, but we haven’t yet developed the technologies necessary for doing it. 

David Watt
Brentwood, Essex

 

When CVs worked

SIRS – I was both amused and saddened to read your report (Business, November 16) on how the Association of British Insurers has scrapped traditional CVs for new recruits by hiding the names and education of all job applicants.

Twenty-five or so years ago, I had responsibility for recruiting technical staff into a public-sector organisation. There were always plentiful applications.

In the initial sift of CVs, I would often come across ones that were badly written. If, however, the applicant’s qualifications looked good, and from their history there were factors that might explain their poor expression – if English was unlikely to be their first language, for instance – I would generally take them forward. My decision often turned out to be justified.

Then the HR department changed the rules, and CVs were anonymised. Those with bad grammar and spelling went straight into the bin.

Philip Brennan
Oxhill, Warwickshire

Drumroll, please

SIR – I think that the gift of a drum kit should be looked at in a more positive light (Letters, November 22).

One of my grandsons is at a rare school where the arts are promoted. He has taken up the drums and bought a set himself. It’s a great release for a burgeoning teenager to let off steam and he’s rather found his niche. He will be performing Day Tripper with his guitar-playing pal at the school Christmas concert.

Not all drum kits suffer a fate of oblivion. This one resides with Granny and he pops in to practise on his way home, which is company for me, too.

Avril Wright
Snettisham, Norfolk

SIR – Browsing in the Early Learning Centre, I picked up a toy drum. An anonymous mother’s voice at my elbow said quietly: “You’re brave.” I popped it back on the shelf.

Sally Goulden 
Ashford, Middlesex

Seven-day NHS

SIR – Dr Michael Pegg (Letters, November 21) rightly rejects the call for a four-day week and observes that hospitals have enough trouble coping with a two-day weekend. Indeed they do, because the medical unions have blocked the introduction of a full, seven-day service. 

Saturdays and Sundays are therefore dangerous times to be in hospital, because doctors are few and operating theatres and diagnostic machines stand idle. This scandalous waste of scarce resources compromises patient care. 

Future pay increases for doctors and nurses should be linked to the introduction of fully functioning NHS hospitals every day of the year.

Francis Bown
London E3

Christmas cunning

SIR – Our patterdale terrier Olive was smart enough to open the doors on an advent calendar, carelessly left on a coffee table (Letters, November 22). 

What we never figured out was whether she worked her way through the chocolates in date order. I’d like to think she did.

Robert Mendick
London SW1 

SIR – Years ago, my parents covered up what was left of the Christmas turkey, leaving it to cool a bit longer on the kitchen work surface before refrigeration. Looking back, the meat was clearly an easy target, even for well-behaved pets, and quickly stolen. 

What was a surprise, though, was how the family moggie, Austin, and german shepherd, Billy, were willing to collaborate. 
Those two had a very cold relationship. After being chased across the garden when we first brought the dog home, Austin largely ignored his fellow housemate and hissed whenever Billy came near – yet there they were, quietly eating that turkey alongside one another. 

To achieve a mutual objective, even animals can make a truce for Christmas. 

Emilie McRae
Towbridge, Wiltshire

SIR – My Siamese cats, William and Benjamin, have a passion for oven gloves. If these are left on a kitchen surface, the cats very quickly grab them and disappear.

At least six have been destroyed. We think it’s all that delicious gravy and duck fat on the finger tips that does for them.

Susan Fellows
Willington, Derbyshire

Luggage limits are not new on Britain’s railways

SIR – The new limits on luggage set by LNER for passengers on the East Coast Main Line (report, November 21) are reminiscent of restrictions recommended to travellers by rail operators during the Second World War. 

Public information advertisements urged: “Lighter luggage please, if you must travel.”

They continued: “Your journey will be more comfortable if you take only a little luggage. You will help to reduce congestion and avoid delay.”

This was part of a concerted campaign to limit the amount of leisure travel and to keep troops on the move.

Christopher Gray
Oxford

SIR – Unlike Christopher Howse (Comment, November 22), I think that Britain’s railway operators should become more like airlines and put bulky luggage items in a separate carriage. All planes have a luggage hold, so why not trains? 

Weren’t train carriages in which one could store bulky items such as trunks once called guard’s vans? Alternatively, perhaps the equivalent of a few seats per carriage should be devoted to luggage racks or even lockers. Airlines can easily prevent oversized bags from reaching passenger compartments, but this is more difficult to monitor on trains.

Nick Eckford
Harpenden, Hertfordshire

The Covid inquiry is turning into a charade

SIR – Will the Covid inquiry (Letters, November 22) ever produce any practical lessons that will enable the United Kingdom to manage the next pandemic far better than it did the last?

The current round of political and personal backbiting achieves nothing, but disgraces those who indulge in it.

This charade of denial by everyone only wastes taxpayers’ money and embarrasses all those involved. Unless it drastically changes tack and focuses on how to improve any future response, it is likely to become the most expensive, longest-lasting white elephant any government has ever endorsed.

Mike McKone
Soulby, Cumbria

SIR – As the Covid inquiry rambles on, its proceedings beautifully highlight the difference between “human failings” and “failing humans”: the former are what politicians and their political advisers might claim as the excuse for their behaviour during the pandemic; the latter are what the rest of the country perceives.

Richard Weeks
Felixstowe, Suffolk

SIR – The Covid inquiry is discovering what the Danes have known for many years: making predictions is difficult, especially when they include the future.

Nicholas Franks
Toller Porcorum, Dorset

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