I'm a millennial who just bought my first home – the Budget has reduced me to tears

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I thought I’d write to you as a recent first-time buyer about today’s Budget cuts and what they mean for me.

I completed purchasing my first home on Friday 10 November – just over a week ago. I am a graphic designer. I studied hard at university and am still living with the consequences of my university days, with debts reaching almost £30,000 since graduating in 2012.

It took me almost six years to save enough money for our stamp duty, which as of today is not necessary for people like myself – first-time buyers on properties up to £300,000 – to pay.

This huge sum of money could have gone into paying my £30,000 student debt which I can, frankly, never seem to touch the surface of.

After speaking to HMRC about whether we still need to pay our stamp duty this afternoon, sadly for us, because of a gap of seven days, we will have to part with that money – money which I will be paying off for the next seven years of my life.

It deeply saddens me that in a bid for the Government to help young Londoners, they have just reduced me to tears. This is one budget cut that really could have made a real difference to me.

It seems cruel that there is no relief period, for those who are yet to pay their fees, or those who have so recently completed a buy. Instead I will have to suffer the consequence of “bad timing” for the next seven years of my life.

Name and address supplied

We really do need to stop Brexit

Where, oh where can we find a person with the stature and courage to lead us away from the madness that is Brexit? Every day now we are learning of more companies and institutions looking to move abroad – with the implications for jobs and the country’s income – while our captive Government tries to negotiate the impossible dream of a deal little different from that which we currently enjoy.

This morning I heard Jonathan Lynn, co-author of Yes, Minister, point out the result of the Referendum only became the immutable “will of the people” when the Brexiteers found they had narrowly won a majority of those who voted. What has become of the sovereignty of our elected Parliament? Come on you MPs; most of you know Brexit is a disaster in the making. Find a leader and put an end to this insanity before it is too late.

Name and Address Supplied

Political cartoons are more relevant than ever

Dave Brown, we are not worthy – unlike your hapless hopeless subjects who are so totally worthy of your acerbic derision, your pricking of pustules, your fevered flaying back to the heart of the blather, yet always with a mastery of your medium and knowledge of art history that in a more sober career choice might earn you accolades and gongs. In an age so needy of a Hogarth and a Swift, please accept a gong from me: you fill the boots of both, keep putting them in where it hurts.

Rick Biddulph
Farnham

Democracy for sale

I see that the Conservatives are now set to launch a “Millennial Railcard”, offering up to a third off the off-peak rail fares of people who they feel didn’t vote for them in sufficient numbers at the last election. Presumably this will be financed using taxpayers’ money, in much the same way that taxpayers’ money was used to buy the support of the DUP after the Conservatives failed to win a majority at the last election.

There was a time when the British democratic system was revered as the Mother of Parliaments – I suppose the term “Mother” is still somewhat applicable to it now...

Julian Self
Milton Keynes

The ‘Millennial Railcard’ is a distraction

I recall the well-known quote: “What you have to realise about the Conservative party is that it is a coalition of privileged interests. Its main purpose is to defend that privilege. And the way it wins elections is by giving just enough to just enough other people.”

Is a railcard “enough” for the millennials?

Steve Ford
Haydon Bridge

The David Davis ‘show’

The arrogance of David Davis appears unlimited. The Brexit negotiations are not a game show and he is not “in control”. Has he considered the possibility that it might be Europe who decides “no deal”?

Richard Greenwood
Bewdley