Letters to the editor: Tax credits - the tip of the iceberg

Chancellor George Osborne
Getty
28 October 2015
WEST END FINAL

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While the proposed cuts to tax credits take centre stage, there are other worrying welfare-reform measures planned.

In July, the Chancellor announced moves to cut £30 a week from claimants of Employment and Support Allowance (ESA). I work with the terminally ill and if it were not for advisers such as me this group would be worse off. We need to ensure people get into a support group. The aim of the policy is to save money but it could be counter-productive as health intervention may be necessary.

It is obvious that sick people have extra costs — in order to maintain health they need to be warm, well-clothed and fed. This measure will worsen the situation for hundreds of thousands of people and must be stopped before it’s too late.
Gary Martin

When George Osborne declares his desire for a “high-wage, low-welfare economy” he needs to solve both problems simultaneously. The tax credit debacle has come about because he is attacking only half the problem.

The obvious solution is to require employers to make up the difference in people’s pay when their tax credits are cut. Why should employers who benefit from the poverty-wage subsidy continue to benefit when it is cut, while victims of it are penalised?
Martin Kennedy

So George Osborne is upset that “unelected Labour and Liberal lords have defeated a financial matter passed by the elected House of Commons”.

His point about democratic process being usurped seems a little precious given that the Tories went into the last election, barely six months ago, on the back of a promise not to cut tax credits.

Moreover, they also endeavoured to sidestep democracy — avoiding scrutiny or proper debate of the cuts — by passing the move in the Commons as a statutory instrument rather than an actual bill, which it clearly ought to have been.

Clearing the deficit, let us remember, is about paying off debts that were run up by bankers. This attempt to cut assistance to the low paid, who are often the ones keeping our society running, in the same parliamentary session as cutting inheritance tax for the rich was utterly shameful. Osborne is a disgrace.
Julian Self

Once again we find the unelected House of Lords is more in tune with public opinion than the Commons. Heaven preserve us from an elected second chamber in the future.
Pete Roberts

Many politicians now complaining about being overruled by unelected peers nevertheless seem content to have most of our laws imposed on us by unelected EU commissioners.
Idris Francis

Treat puppies with much greater care

It is a sad fact that veterinary practices across London see new owners bringing in puppies with all sorts of health and welfare problems, as highlighted in your article [“Ban cruel and deadly trade in dogs reared in puppy farms”, October 26].

The law is out of date and needs to change. In the meantime, there is more that potential new owners can do to make sure they get a healthy, happy puppy from a reputable source.

The British Veterinary Association recommends downloading the Animal Welfare Foundation/RSPCA puppy contract and information pack from puppycontract.rspca.org.uk.

The pack was put together by veterinary surgeons working with dog welfare experts and it includes all the questions you should ask of a breeder. Any good breeder will be happy to provide the answers.

The British Veterinary Association also recommends talking to your local vet before you take on a new pet to make sure you get the right pet for your lifestyle.
Sean Wensley, president, British Veterinary Association

At least hereditary peers show humility

One solution to the Government’s clash with the House of Lords would be to reverse the removal of hereditary peers by Tony Blair in 1999 rather than for David Cameron to create still more peers from his friends and advisers.

At least the hereditaries — who included intelligent campaigning peers such as the late Earl of Onslow — had some humility, unlike the placemen, donors and former politicians who now occupy the Lords, including some individuals who came out of the expenses scandals badly but couldn’t be voted out of Parliament. This may be why they had no reservations about rejecting a measure approved three times by the Commons.
M Penston, Beckenham

Scaremongering over meat is stupid

The preposterous advice from the World Health Organisation (WHO) that eating processed meat increases the risk of cancer ignores an awkward reality: the huge range of quality within that category. Sausages from a good butcher may be only slightly lightened by bread, fat and seasonings while poor-quality factory-produced sausages have little pig in them and revolting preservatives and colourings. This blanket condemnation of an entire class of food rather than the poorest quality part of it is silly. Can’t the WHO state the obvious, that we should eat and drink in moderation?
M Dauti, London W14

Make presenters wear white poppies

I thought red poppies were optional, but BBC presenters don’t seem to have the freedom to choose not to wear them. Ironic, isn’t it?

Does anyone remember what the red poppy actually represents? The original meaning has been ambushed by the military public-relations machine, which has turned the symbol into a way of manipulating the public into “supporting the troops” and, by extension, backing current, sometimes illegal and unnecessary conflicts.

In the First World War, the vast majority of fatalities were military. A hundred years on, around 90 per cent of war deaths are civilian. The white poppy is a far more fitting symbol because it represents everyone who dies in war and not just “our boys”.
Colin

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