Letters: The Budget

Budget plan to tax the rich will penalise the poor

The Chancellor has forecast an extra £7bn in revenue by 2012-13 from penalising high-rate taxpayers. Poppycock. That may be the case if you assume that it will have no impact on people's behaviour. When the Conservatives reduced the top rate to 40 per cent the amount of revenue generated from high earners increased, so why does Mr Darling believe that the reverse will not hold true?

The Government is keen to point out that we compete in a global economy. Well the same is true of competing for the residency of high-rate tax payers. I have just set up my own business, specialising in international advertising. We are winning clients all over the world, resulting in new jobs in the UK. However there is nothing to stop me running my business from anywhere on the planet. In fact I am currently in Dubai, where the tax rate is 0 per cent, so I wonder whether I should bother coming back when the Government will retain 63 per cent of any money I earn.

But the reason this is iniquitous is not the impact it will have on me, but that it is a double whammy on the lower-paid – fewer jobs and a higher future tax burden for those unable to leave.

Michael Moszynski

London EC1

I know a lot of people who drive cars about ten years old. I also have quite a few acquaintances who replace their cars with new ones as soon as the maker's warranty expires, usually after two years. I know of no one who runs a 10-year-old car who would consider buying a new one, even with a £2,000 subsidy, and no one who regularly buys new who would be seen dead in anything over half that age, except possibly an extremely expensive classic Bentley or Aston Martin.

It will be interesting to see how these two mutually exclusive markets are distorted by the "scrappage" subsidy. I suspect that elderly cars that hitherto would have struggled to make £200 in an auction will now start fetching £1,500 or so as they are bought by people wishing to replace their three-year-old car (which they'll sell on the open market) by a new one whilst taking advantage of the scrappage subsidy.

David Burton

Telford

Iranian President in new racism row

Well, that didn't take long. In the first session of the United Nations anti-racism conference in Geneva, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad delivered a speech in which he called Israel a "totally racist government". This prompted dozens of delegates to walk out in protest, making a deserved mockery of the UN proceedings – and vindicated President Barak Obama's decision to steer America clear of this clownish colloquy.

Interestingly, the Dutch foreign minister explained that her nation was boycotting this year's anti-racism conference not only over the Israel issue but also because Muslim nations are fighting free speech and freedom of religion – two hallmarks of liberal democracy – by trying to have the UN declare criticism of Islam tantamount to racism.

In Israel, Tuesday was Holocaust Remembrance Day. The Iranian president has again given the world reason to understand how the murder of 6 million Jews came to pass. By giving respectability to this anti-Semitic fanatic's ranting, the UN has done its shameful part too.

Ben Saul-David

London NW4

Rather than walk out, and despite the unpleasant invective, why did the diplomats at Geneva not at least attempt to understand the arguments from an Iranian and non-western perspective?

Look at the history. The Shah was installed by the US for its own agenda, which had nothing to do with Iranian well-being. For years the US supported Saddam Hussein in the Iran-Iraq conflict, as it did Osama bin Laden fighting with the precursors of the Taliban against Russian rule in Afghanistan, in theatres of war where many, many thousands of local people died.

The US was the prime mover in the UN Partition of 1947, which the Palestinian Arabs were bound to reject as it gave more than half the Mandate territory to the Jews who were less than 30 per cent of the population.

Out of all the nations, only the Palestinians, by continually being ousted from their property, seem to have been punished for the terrible crimes of the Holocaust, in which they had no part. Now Israel, in illegal possession of nuclear weapons, armed to the teeth by the west, is seen by its neighbours as an overwhelming threat, led by a regime that no longer expresses any interest in the formation of a separate Palestinian state.

On this last point the Israeli government may be right, but for the wrong reasons. The Palestinian territories are now so fragmented that only with great difficulty could they stand on their own. The "road-map" is a map of roads that only Israelis can drive along. Far better the creation of a unitary Palestine/Israel, open to both peoples alike, with both possessing equal rights. Far better, in other words, Edward Said's "bi-national state"'.

Tom Rasmussen

Manchester

I was appalled to learn of the BBC Trust's criticism of Jeremy Bowen. A few years ago I took part in a meeting where Jeremy introduced his book The Six Day War (2003). Having served as an Israeli reservist in that war, I was impressed by Bowen's balanced account of its background and the outcome.

He insightfully discussed the events that preceded the war, and the Israeli military's air-space incursions and skirmishes on the Syrian border which provoked it. I spoke of my own experience as a reservist, which corroborated Bowen's well-balanced introduction to his book. My own contribution to the discussion was less than welcomed by the pro-Israel audience that attended the talk in large numbers. Bowen, however, led the heated discussion in an impartial way which characterises his reporting to the present day

Ruth Tenne

London NW6

Abuses of EU aid spending

Despite what Andrew Duff MEP writes (letter, 17 April), integrating EU aid spending into the rest of the EU's finances won't stop abuses of that money, when the EU can't even get its accounts approved at audit. The lack of transparency and accountability that drives the problems in the aid budget also exists in the rest of the European Union. The culture of cover-ups and secrecy is so entrenched we don't even know how MEPs have voted on many issues.

We need moves towards genuine transparency and scrutiny in aid spending, not further integration into a supranational organisation that has allowed ongoing fraud and misspending on a vast scale across its budget, from MEPs expenses to aid to Africa.

The Lisbon Treaty isn't the way to bring transparency and scrutiny to EU aid spending.

Matthew Sinclair

Research Director

The Taxpayers' Alliance

London SW1

Adrian Hamilton writes (16 April) that the Lib Dems will "tread gingerly" on the subject of Europe "even in areas such as the South-West".

On the contrary, I am pleased to reassure your readers that we are planning to fight an openly pro-EU campaign pointing out how Tory MEPs' opposition to EU co-operation in fighting crime would have allowed thousands of criminals to evade justice: how Labour MEP's support for the Working Time Directive would prevent our retained fire fighters from providing a vital service and how only the Liberal Democrats work constructively in Brussels to tackle climate change. EU countries are stronger together and would be poorer apart and we are not afraid to say this.

Graham Watson MEP

Lead Candidate and Campaign Chair, SW England Liberal Democrats, Langport, Somerset

People better kept locked up

Thirty-odd years ago, I worked at Rampton, which, like Broadmoor, was a secure hospital ("Inside Broadmoor", 21 April). One morning, the siren sounded and news spread that a patient had made it over the 12ft fence during the previous night.

Later that morning, as police were drafted in from neighbouring towns and roadblocks set up, some of the more dangerous patients talked about what they would do if they escaped. A few became excited, plotting revenge on the witnesses at their trials. A fire-deprived pyromaniac could hardly contain himself as he pointed to the field bordering the fence and said that he would set fire to the farmer's haystack – and then stay to watch it burn.

Of course, what patients said in front of the staff was totally different from what they said in the psychiatrist's office. It'll be a very brave, or very stupid, psychiatrist who starts releasing patients with Dangerous and Severe Personality Disorder, An accident waiting to happen.

Alan Aitchison

Wakefield, West Yorkshire

UK lacks unity on wind energy

Despite the opportunities created by our blustery climate, the UK's delayed entry into the wind-turbine manufacturing industry means both government and industry must now work twice as hard to establish the UK as a major player in the development of Europe's offshore wind industry (report, 14 April). The UK faces major competition for foreign direct investment from its neighbours – two of whom are home to the world's two largest offshore turbine makers.

However, the greatest difficulty is a lack of unity and co-ordination, which that means offshore wind development is currently being pursued by a wide array of organisations, often working independently and at cross purposes. This puts the UK at disadvantage in attracting investment.

Government action must move ahead on two fronts. First, leadership from the new Office of Renewable Energy Deployment will go some way to co-ordinating a disjointed market and present a unified, national front for attracting inward investment into the UK. Second, Regional Development Agencies can play a key role in building supply chains, supporting provision of essential infrastructure such as ports, and supporting the small number of key manufacturers to invest in the UK.

Matthew Jackson

Arthur D Little's Energy & Utilities Practice

London SW19

Briefly...

Making an exhibition

I should think Westminster City Council does indeed have serious concerns about the application to turn the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square into an international grandstand for clothed or unclothed exhibitionists (report, 22 April). London would become an international laughing stock if this dotty and intellectually bankrupt "art" project were ever to get off the ground in so public and so historically important a site.

Michael Daley

Director, ArtWatch UK

Barnet, Hertfordshire

What Blair knew

Stuart Russell (letter, 23 April) claims that "Blair was only repeating what every world authority knew to be true" about Iraq's WMDs. Except, of course, for Robin Cook, Clare Short, Mohammed ElBaradei, the UN inspectors themselves, Kofi Annan, the heads of state of Germany, France, and Russia, Senator Barack Obama, Dr David Kelly, a million people who marched in London, 90 per cent of Spaniards, most of Africa, all Arabs, the Pope, the Dalai Lama, and Cat Stevens. But aside from them Blair was in good company, with George Bush and his personal spooks.

Robert Sather

Chesham Bois, Buckinghamshire

Meddling Prince

Nick Reeves's defence of Prince Charles over the Chelsea Barracks affair is disingenuous (Letter, 22 April). Whenever the Prince airs his views he is not listened to as a private citizen, still less a professional expert, but as heir to the throne – a vested interest if ever there was one. In this case he went beyond mere comment and directly intervened to try and get the planning outcome he desired. If he wants to meddle in urban politics, he should renounce his claim to the succession and set up in business as a planning consultant.

Phil Cohen

London N19

Not 'proven', please

"This procedure can't be ethical until it is proven safe"', says the headline to Steve Connor's article of 22 April. Why has "proved", the good old English form of the past participle of "prove", been so suddenly displaced by this alien form? (Is it Scottish, as in "not proven"?) Until three or four years ago, "proven" was confined, at any rate south of the border, to the adjectival use, as in "a proven fact". Its currently widespread use to form the passive voice of the verb looks really weird.

Robin Orton

London SE26

Slow lane

The way to eliminate speeding is quite simple (The Big Question, 22 April). A law should be passed making it compulsory for all motor vehicles to be preceded by a person on foot with a red flag. This would have the added advantage of solving unemployment overnight.

R E Hooper

Stratford upon Avon