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Rachel Reeves will raise taxes 'to cover previous spending and miscalculation', says reader
I’m afraid Julian (MetroTalk, Tue) lacks a basic understanding of what this government is doing when he says it has no choice but to raise taxes if we want our public services repaired.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves isn’t raising taxes to spend more, it’s to cover previous spending and miscalculation.
Her raising taxes will actually do very little for public services as it will result in a complete lack of economic growth – thousands of jobs have already been lost under this government due to their national insurance hikes for businesses.
Raising taxes further will simply negatively impact economic growth through reduced business investment, lower consumer spending, disincentives to work, uncertainty and fear – which again reduces spending and growth.
A prosperous, growing economy provides a government with the means to spend. I’m afraid breaking ‘the 50-year tax taboo’ – not to raise income tax in a Budget – is simply a sign of a government with clueless economic leadership who emptied the coffers early doors (and let us not forget the net zero spending madness). Dave, Surrey
Brunt of new taxes ‘will be felt by poor people and disabled people’, reader says
Rachel Reeves’ latest idea is the ‘taxi tax’, of charging VAT on private hire and minicab fares.
It’s clear that the brunt of this tax will be felt by poor people and disabled people.
VAT is always an unfair tax because price rises hit the poorest hardest and taxis are used disproportionately more by people with mobility problems. Reeves must know all of this.
The effects could be mitigated by running more and better buses. This would reduce the need for taxis, cut carbon emissions and improve congestion.
The government would save money overall, because we wouldn’t need so many expensive new roads. Of course, they’re not actually doing this – that would be too clever. Sharon, Manchester
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Reader says military driving instructors are ‘absolutely amazing’
Military examiners are being drafted in to help clear the record backlog of 670,000 awaiting their driving test (Metro, Thu).
My daughter was taught by an ex-military instructor – they were absolutely amazing. She passed first time and was only learning for around three months with no help from anyone else, just the weekly lesson.
That was a few years ago so she got a test easily but now you’re lucky to even get one in our area and if you do it’s about a one-year wait. You have to book one for miles away if you want it any quicker. Mel Vickers, via Metro.co.uk
Donald Trump, or ‘American bully-in-chief’?
How dare Tory shadow culture secretary Nigel Huddleston suggest the BBC should ‘grovel’ to American bully-in-chief Donald Trump for misrepresenting his speech before the Capitol Hill riots.
Tory and Reform UK politicians love to wave their little Union Jacks and deride immigrants but – when it comes to our globally envied national institutions such as the BBC, NHS and justice system – they are quick to kowtow to a foreign power.
Mr Huddleston may claim that he just doesn’t want to see licence fee-payers’ money lost but Trump wants compensation as well as an apology and legal experts have said his defamation case has little prospect of success.
And while the BBC may have selectively edited the speech, the overall impression given by their film was arguably accurate.
There is little doubt Trump’s words and actions on the day – particularly his repeated false claims about the 2020 election and exhortations to go to the Capitol and subsequently to ‘fight like hell’ – contributed materially to the events leading to the rioting, even if they fell short of criminal incitement. Paul Johnson, Ilford
Did the BBC ‘invent a false narrative’?
Matthew (MetroTalk, Thu) calls me a right-winger for saying the BBC is ‘left-leaning’.
Well, if being disgusted with the BBC doctoring a politician’s speech, thereby inventing a false narrative, makes me a right-winger then I say good – because then ‘right-wing’ surely means believing in the truth. Stefan Badham, Portsmouth
Reader says ‘the BBC was deliberately misrepresenting Trump’
Michael Harris (MetroTalk, Thu), perhaps only half-jokingly, says the BBC should sue Trump’s White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt for saying it is ‘100 per cent fake news’ and a ‘leftist propaganda machine’.
She was expressing her opinion whereas the BBC was deliberately misrepresenting Trump. John, Orpington
The right-wing prefer ‘the bizarre opinions of narcissistic billionaires to the reasoned analysis of the BBC’
Clearly right-wingers like Andy (MetroTalk, Thu) – who want the BBC defunded over what he says is its obvious bias – much prefer the bizarre opinions of bellowing, narcissistic billionaires to the reasoned analysis and fairness of the BBC. I think my licence fee is extraordinarily good value for money given its enormous output and quality and the huge influence it has on our vital creative industries.
And let’s not forget just how well the BBC captures the unique character of the British Isles. We should cherish the BBC, not knock it. Incidentally I’m a centrist, not a left-winger! Guy Wilkins, Richmond
Readerwarns of ‘dangers’ posed by Trump and Nigel Farage
Andy sadly displays the typical lack of awareness of the dangers posed by populists like Trump and Nigel Farage.
Gullible people like Andy fall for the lies and promises these people are so good at spinning. They either know nothing of history or have learnt nothing. God help us if there are many more like him. John Lewis, Coulsdon
‘Sadly, you’re more likely to see a Palestinian flag than a poppy now’, reader says
Kay from London (MetroTalk, Tue) wonders why she saw so few people wearing poppies on her recent trips into the capital.
Could it perhaps have something to do with the fact that, according to the most recent census, more than 40 % of her ‘fellow Londoners’ were in fact born abroad?
Sadly, you’re more likely to see a Palestinian flag than a poppy now, as tribal sectarianism gradually replaces a sense of national identity. Chris H, London
Is fascism rising again? More readers think so
Caitlyn (MetroTalk, Thu) is correct – fascism is rising again and they are following the same playbook of blaming foreigners and minorities.
One of the main reasons they are finding recruitment easy is collective memory loss. There are simply very few people around who remember the last war as an adult.
My father would be 100 now and he recalled the horrors only too well. Luckily, I listened. Let us hope many others have listened similarly and do so in the future. Robert Boston, Kent
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