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Letters
Currently nearly half of the population is in need of help with economic and social problems.
Referring to Budget Statements since 1963, income and tax bands, as well as indirect taxation data, I now present 11 proposals.
First, raising the personal allowance to £15,000, paid for by an increase in direct taxation for those earning above £200,000 of 5 pence in the pound.
Second, repealing parts of the 1988 Housing Act and reinstating the 1977 Fair Rent Act.
Third an immediate reduction of £20 a week in rents on private rented housing costing more than £700 a month.
Fourth, ending the current buy to let scheme.
Fifth, zero-rated VAT on gas and electric bills. Let us remember Government resistance when the EU tried to introduce it at 20 per cent then set at 5 per cent as a compromise.
Sixth, a variable charge on gas and electric bills setting a much lower rate for the first five units a day, followed by higher rates based on the quantity of power used.
Seventh, a reduction of VAT on all goods and services to 18 per cent, costing about £12.1bn, and would be paid for by a 2 pence increase in taxation for all those whose income is above £100,000.
Eighth, the abolition of VAT on all sanitary products. This measure would cost about £9 million, paid for by increasing the tax on the income to oil companies, whose quarterly profit this year was more than 1,000 times as great.
This could also mean a reduction in the price of petrol by 10-20 pence a litre, so that no filling station would be allowed to charge more than £1.50 a litre.
Ninth, increasing the cost of borrowing in steps of 0.2 per cent staged at twomonthly intervals up to an overall increase of 1 per cent. This would help those relying on interest from savings, particularly the elderly. The effects of this policy would need to be carefully watched.
Tenth, empty properties to be made habitable by their owners and if this is not achievable after 12 months then they must be sold to a housing association and let at a Fair Rent, say about £100 a week – the Joseph Rowntree Foundation currently lets flats in parts of London for much less.
Eleventh, introduce a £2,000 Corporation Tax break to help small business.
If you doubt the efficacy of any of these policies, then I will take you back to the late 1960s. Then the basic rate of income tax was 30 per cent, the top rate 90 per cent and purchase tax on basic goods 7.5 per cent.
My childhood family lived on about £23 a week – we always had food on the table, never owed any money and were able to pay all bills. The rent was about £3 a week. There was no such thing as a food bank, although I do have a memory of two boys pocketing some left-overs at the school kitchen hatch at a wellknown local school – there was no stigma with that and, looking back, they were growing fast. Above all we had plenty of fun.
These proposals would make many households more than £40 a week better off. Unlike the recent Government announcements, they would be permanent, not sticking plaster measures, funded by more borrowing.
I therefore challenge all members of Parliament to either agree with these proposals or to produce more effective ones.
I also call upon all New Blackmore Vale readers to do the same and to write to their MP to get these or other more effective proposals enacted in the next six weeks at the latest.
Failure to do this will lead to tragic consequences, illness and loss of life. Professor Kate Pickett, co-author of ‘The Spirit Level’ (2009) made a convincing case that better health comes when there is greater equality among the population, the main reasons being changes in body biochemistry and the effect on psychology.
If you care about other people, and civilisation in general, please act now.
Dr Colin Clark Via email
I was surprised by the letter from Tony Eldridge regarding David Warburton MP and his apology for what had appeared in the press rather than for anything he may have done.
Of course, I don’t know the true details like everyone else but perhaps Mr Eldridge knows more than the rest of us. Was the article in The Sunday Times true? Who knows but until we do know maybe it would be better to hold our counsel.
It was after all, The Sunday Times which printed The Hitler Diaries!
Mr Eldridge goes on to praise the standing of Liberal Democrat David Heath and Tim Carroll. I didn’t know David Heath but I did know Tim Carroll and agree he was an honourable man who worked hard for his community.
But I would counsel Mr Eldridge against personal attacks because I also remember Sir Cyril Smith and the Rt Hon Jeremy Thorpe who definitely were not.
I also remember, and knew, Cllr Rik Pallister, who replaced Tim Carroll as the Liberal Democrat Leader of South Somerset District Council and is currently serving at Her Majesty’s Pleasure.
It does seem to me that for such a small party the Liberal Democrats have a high proportion of miscreants!
I was also surprised to learn that the Liberal Democrats have chosen as their candidate for the Somerton & Frome Constituency a current member of the ruling district executive of South Somerset District Council who have presided over the most shameful period in the council’s history, racking up huge debts, the debacle over the appointment on the chief executive, police investigations into fraud by senior officers and a damming auditors’ report.
David Norris Wincanton
I would like to point out to Greg Williams that when he talks about bus services and tells us to ‘use them or lose them’ some of us have already lost this service some years ago.
Which makes our bus passes a bit of a white elephant.
Pauline House Via email
I can help your correspondent Allan Robson (New Blackmore Vale, 15 May) with his question ‘why are the builders of all new houses not being made to put solar panels on the roofs?’
They do not install solar panels because it not compulsory – they don’t have to, so they don’t.
That is the answer they give to Sherry Jespersen, our local councillor.
The house builders do not care about the energy crisis or the climate emergency or our environment or our children or helping this Government to de-carbonise our economy and environment – they just care about maximising their profits.
I have also exchanged emails with Simon Hoare, our MP, and he tells me the Government leaves it to the house builders to decide if their buildings are appropriately sited etc for the installation of solar panels.
Not a single building constructed by Bellway at Blandford St Mary is suited to having solar panels nor any of the houses built by Wyatt in Pimperne.
Bunkum. Sherry Jespersen also told me that Dorset and other shire counties ask Mr Gove – the responsible Minister – every month to change this voluntary policy and he refuses.
The largest donors to Tory party funds are the house builders. It appears the Government has a policy designed to protect the profits of its donors rather than helping with the energy crisis or its own attempts to de-carbonise our economy and environment.
Simon Hoare suggested that somehow making builders install solar panels would add another burden onto ‘hard-pressed families’, the last thing they want is a house which provides significant ‘free’ energy.
Favouring a donor at the expense of society at large looks like corruption and deliberately ensuring poorer people and families are stuck with expensive energy provision looks like callousness.
Simon Hoare gave no indication that he supported his fellow Tory councillors in their dealings with Mr Gove. What a lovely picture it all makes.
Richard Foley Via email
Unfortunately more councils are installing car park ticket dispensers which won’t take cash.
You need a smartphone, a good knowledge of how to use it and considerable patience to pay for your parking to not get an expensive fine.
This rules out many people, including the elderly and those with various difficulties.
The instigators of these new methods see them as increasing their revenues because of drivers’ difficulties in using them.
Drivers should be given alternative methods of paying for their car parking because this method alone is similar to highway robbery if you struggle with technology.
A £2 parking ticket becomes a £50 fine very easily.
Nick Smith Blandford Forum
I would like to point out that the piece by Ruth Kimber (New Blackmore Vale, May 13) says ‘forgive the tractor drivers if they slow you down’.
They are more likely to MOW you down, the speed they go down Barrow Lane! I am just so glad I don’t live there – I feel sorry for the residents who do!
Tractor drivers think they own the road and expect other drivers, when they have the audacity to use the PUBLIC road, albeit a LANE, to disappear!
Clare Abel Sherborne
I was rather surprised The New Blackmore Vale published the letter on 27 May from Shirley Fooks describing our MP Chris Loder as a ‘chocolate teapot’.
I think he is doing rather well, especially with local matters.
I find it sad that Mrs Fooks has to sink so low as to make offensive, personal comments which diminish the value of any points she was trying to make.
Sally Waite Sherborne
I think it is quite unfair of Shirley Fooks to criticise Chris Loder as she does (Letters, 27 May), comparing him to a chocolate teapot because he didn’t do exactly as she wished over the Minor Injuries Unit at the Yeatman Hospital – for whose reopening he campaigned. Chris Loder isn’t just MP for Sherborne – his enormous constituency also contains several other towns as big or bigger, all with specific local issues to try and address. My impression is he works extremely hard for his constituents and it must be a thankless task with people like Ms Fooks leaping into print to criticise.
