What do you think? (Credits: PA)
In today’s MetroTalk, readers are responding to Jeremy Hunt’s autumn statement, where the Chancellor announced even lower taxes and a benefits crackdown for people, including the mentally and physically disabled, who refuse to look for work. Two changes that are likely to affect the poorest among us and our already suffering public services.
A reader has written in to suggest that, considering the rich’s charitable endeavours, they don’t actually mind paying more money. So, shouldn’t they be taxed more? It works in Scandinavia.
Meanwhile, readers are discussing why it’s important to educate each other about prejudice and whether we should feel guilty for the past actions of our own or other people’s ancestors.
What do you think about our readers’ letters today?
Share your thoughts in the comments.
‘Tax cuts just allow the wealthy to hoard moneyand doesn’t improve the economy’
Further to the autumn mini-budget and calls by some in the Conservative Party for Jeremy Hunt to further cut taxes.
What the Tories fail to understand is that many of the richest in society are perfectly happy to pay more – just look how many billionaires have signed the Giving Pledge, promising to give the majority of their wealth to charity.
Tax cuts will not help the economy – they just allow the wealthy to hoard money, taking it out of the economy and making things worse.
The poorest spend the greatest proportion of their income, so if they have a bigger overall slice of the pie then there is more personal spending in total and the economy grows.
This is one of the reasons why the Scandinavian countries are amongst the richest in the world – they have higher taxes for the most well-off.
Another reason Scandinavia does so well is because they have excellent public services. For our economy to improve, we need more funding for healthcare and education systems – if people aren’t healthy or well-educated, they won’t work properly, no matter how much the chancellor tries to play carrot-and-stick games with tax and benefit cuts. Rob Slater, Norfolk
It is misleading of the chancellor to imply that all pensioners are having their pension increased to £221.20 per week.
Pensioners who retired prior to April 6, 2016, are in receipt of the ‘old’ basic state pension, which will increase to £169.50, around a one third less than the ‘new’ so-called universal state pension.
Can someone tell me what’s fair or ‘universal’ about that? I write as someone who worked and paid taxes for 57 years. John Stephenson, Wakefield
‘The chancellor’s aim to get the mentally and physically disabled to work harks back to the Victorian workhouse’
What era is the chancellor living in? His announcement about getting the mentally and physically disabled into work is a step back to the Victorian workhouse. I have a few choose words for Mr Hunt but they would not be printable. Paul, Birmingham
A nit-pick about witch hangings
(Credits: Getty Images)
Sorry to nit-pick but you carried a letter about slave trader Edward Colston that said just because something was legal didn’t make it right and gave the example of witches being burnt.
In this country we hanged witches. Many people make that mistake.
I had a friend at university whose ancestor was executed as one of the famous Lancashire, or Pendle, witches. I made sure I knew more than the average person about witchcraft. Valerie, London
‘Everyone needs to be taught about prejudice – those who argue it’s not a problem are white’
Educating each other about predjudice helps mitigate hurt (Credits: Getty Images)
I empathise with George Radley’s dismay at the rise of ‘cancel culture’ and ‘critical race theory’ (MetroTalk, Tue).
But his letter demonstrates why teaching people about prejudice is so important. Our view of white privilege certainly isn’t exaggerated – it is proven to be all-pervasive in every society where white people are in the majority (and quite a few where they are not), just like every other form of discrimination.
To defeat it, people need to be taught how it works, both consciously and unconsciously. I will be brutally honest here, those who argue it’s not that big a problem, don’t know because they can’t see it – because they are white.
Hence why it’s so essential that we take minorities at their word when they say there is unconscious prejudice – it being unconscious means the majority won’t be aware of it.
Many people may feel hard done by for being reprimanded at work for ‘saying the wrong thing’. They are, in fact, being reprimanded for causing significant pain by saying something offensive.
The guilty party may not appreciate that, because they don’t understand what was so egregious about what they said.
If we teach people, they can learn why people might be hurt by certain things; discern what might cause offence; and know clearly where the boundaries lie.
Then we can all confidently navigate these conversations without walking on eggshells for fear of being ‘cancelled’ for making mistakes we don’t understand. Ryan Cooper, London
‘My ancestors didn’t oppress anyone’
I object to Robert Bucknor’s assertion (MetroTalk, Thu) that white people’s past is so bad – so full of looting, raping and genocide.
He’s talking about the ruling classes. My ancestors were working-class people, many of them agricultural workers for wealthy land owners, so not involved in the exploitation of people of other races.
In most cultures, if you go back, you’ll find ruling classes and the rich who abused the working class and also used slaves from their own people.
I read an article on the BBC news website by Nigerian Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani, whose grandfather owned slaves. Moroccans ravaged the south-west of England and southern Ireland in the 1600s, taking people off to the slave markets in Morocco. Penny Munden, Croydon
Does society see people as ‘human’ first and foremost?
Is it really ever that simple? (Picture: Getty Images/iStockphoto)
Robert Bucknor talks about activities that made Caucasians the richest race on the planet. Yes, there are differences of ethnicity, colour, religion, class and gender but we are all of the same race – the human race. We need to try to tolerate each other and live together. Alfie Mullin, West London
I have really appreciated the standard of debate in MetroTalk, particularly on subjects like critical race theory. Whether I agree with contributors or not, each one leaves you thinking. Just as it should be! Mark, Richmond
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In today’s MetroTalk readers are discussing the Autumn Statement and whether tax cuts help the economy.