Sir, When Margaret Thatcher came to power in 1979 one of the first things her government did was to reduce the tax burden on the very rich from 83% to 60% thus leaving them with spare cash to invest, not of course, for the benefit of the country but to boost their already considerable personal wealth.
In the initial sale of national assets Jaguar, British Telecom, the remainder of Cable and Wireless, Britoil and British Gas all found their way into the hands of private investors and not always at the best price for the British taxpayer
In due course British Steel, British Petroleum, Rolls Royce, British Airways and worst of all water and electricity fell into private hands. Those driven by the dogma of privatisation lost sight of the fact that once on the stock exchange there is no guarantee that the shares will always remain in friendly hands.
Currently we have a reduction in the top rate of tax from 50 %to 45% which once again releases more spare cash for the use of the wealthy. In the same budget comes the announcement that funds, underwritten by the taxes of the common herd, will be made available as part of a mortgage incentive to purchase houses up to the value of £600,000.
The scheme is purported to help those seeking to get a foot on the housing ladder for the first time and whilst house prices do vary from region to region the quoted figure is well above the national average.
It may be a coincidence but once more a Conservative controlled government has created an outlet for rich people to invest their windfall cash, this time in the property market, and have refused to ensure that safeguards will be introduced to prevent the scheme being used to purchase second homes at a time when others are being penalised for daring to stay in the only one they have.
Allan A MacDougall. 37 Forth Park, Bridge of Allan.
Delusions of grandeur cost lives
Sir, Ten years ago, my son and his men in 7 Para slid into Iraq alongside the US marines in a pre-invasion strike against Saddam’s “weapons of mass destruction”.
Needless to say they never found these mythical weapons but two of his best friends, also young Para captains, paid for Tony Blair’s delusions of grandeur with their lives.
Blair’s spin meister Alastair Campbell and our intelligence chief John Scarlett produced a document of risible falsehoods to provide “evidence” for this patently illegal war.
Of course, a professional soldier must do what his government tells him to do. So, today my son is on yet another tour of duty in Afghanistan while Tony Blair hoovers up money in a region where he was responsible for so many needless deaths.
Dr John Cameron. 10 Howard Place, St Andrews.
Leave that ivory tower
Sir, I was interested to read Leeza Clark’s piece on a glorified car park at Halbeath (Park and choose on track, March 21), which was visited by Fife Council’s head of transportation and environmental services, Dr Bob McLellan.
Contrast this with his consistent no show at the over due, over budget and over-engineered flood prevention works at Forth Street where residents suffer 24/7 noise pollution, traffic disruption and the contempt for the residents by the site agents.
The poor communication between the council, the contractors and the residents has been nothing short of breathtaking and even after a packed-out public meeting five weeks ago the promises made to visit residents still haven’t materialised.
I don’t know what Dr McLellan is afraid of unless it’s losing his wellies in the mud. You need to come down from that ivory tower, Bob.
David Cruickshanks. 27a Forth Street, Dunfermline.
Ridiculous salaries
Sir I was disappointed to note that the chancellor has not seen fit to make any effort to control and gradually reduce the salaries for the higher managerial appointments within the public services.
In my view, the salary of the Prime Minister (any hue, any government) must be used as the “maximum” benchmark. It is quite ridiculous, surely, that the chief executives of government departments (mostly faceless, nameless individuals), should be paid more than the person elected to “be in charge of” our country.
There are countless others in local government bodies and all the services (health, police etc), plus the infamous “quangos” one set up to provide “financial advice” (available from any bank, local authority or CAB) has a chief executive on approximately £240k per annum.
Comparison with the “private sector’ will not wash any more. The responsibilities at such levels of management could not be more different from the public sector. The former demands performance, working within budget, and making a profit sufficient to pay salaries, corporate tax, business rates and VAT, in most cases.
Additionally, employee tax, pension and National Insurance contributions also have to be found, where appropriate. Failure results in sacking, usually. How many of those highly paid public servants have been removed from their positions for not being up to the job?
A T Geddie. 68 Carleton Avenue, Glenrothes.