Letters: There are worse things than paying taxes

These letters appear in the 1 May issue of The Independent

One of the key issues of David Cameron’s campaign is the claim Labour will increase taxes.

I would like to ask the electorate, what do you think taxes are for? They are not highway robbery; they are there to provide us with essential services. If your house was on fire, and your family trapped inside, would you rather have the fire brigade turn up and rescue them – or pay less tax? If your child goes missing, would you prefer there to be a police helicopter available to look for them – or pay less tax?

I know quite a lot of business people who regularly attend charitable fund-raising events, even buying things at auctions for far more than they are worth; yet those same business people moan about paying the taxes which could be used instead. The alternative is to cut the services, as we’ve seen with the present government.

John Hudson

Derby

There is no doubt that there will be substantial cuts in benefits or tax rises in the next parliament. The Conservatives have said they would legislate to rule out any major tax rises and yet admit that substantial cuts in government expenditure are essential and have therefore boxed themselves in.

There has been a persistent campaign in the press that the “baby-boomer” generation has benefited at the expense of the younger generation, in recent years. The pensioners are an easy target as they cannot go on strike. Nothing has been said by the Conservatives about pension cuts during the election campaign, as they no doubt need the pensioners’ votes. After the election, things could well be different.

I predict in the course of the next parliament that: free prescriptions will be abolished save possibly for those on “benefits”; the bus pass will be phased out; new pensioners will have to wait until they are 70 to receive the state pension; pension rates will be frozen for all pensioners; and the free TV licence will be abolished for those over 75.

Fuel allowance will also almost certainly go, whichever party wins, but this will not add much to the exchequer.

John Moses

Richmond, Surrey

David Cameron has promised to enshrine in law his pledge that if the Tories are returned to power there will be no increases in the main taxes.

Is this so he will be able to stand with hand on heart and state: “Honest to God, I am not allowed to put up taxes so my only option is cutting benefits”?

Roger Chapman

Keighley, West Yorkshire

Benefit cuts and the London poor

Thousands of London families are indeed facing deeper hardship as welfare reforms uproot them from their communities (“London’s secret exodus of the poor”, 29 April). It is also worth considering what cuts to housing benefit have meant for the families that have stayed in London.

Our report Families on the Brink found many parents staying near their support networks at all costs – often in overcrowded or poor-quality accommodation, with the result that they go without essentials to make ends meet.

We need a social security system that enables all children to thrive, not one which weakens their life chances when their parents fall on hard times.

Alison Garnham

Chief Executive, Child Poverty Action Group

London N1

NHS sacrificed to political ideology

In the past five years I have seen more demoralised, dangerously overworked doctors and nurses than I’ve seen in more than 50 years in medicine, and there is the risk of losing a huge proportion of doctors through earlier-than-intended retirement and emigration.

The shameful record of the Coalition Government, that has contributed so much to this demoralisation, seems to be a consequence of a sleight-of-hand strategy to commercialise – some would say prostitute – the NHS because of political ideology.

Conservatives claim to be good at managing the economy but they’re not very good at managing people’s concerns, insecurities and emotions. Ways of saving our NHS could be to abolish damaging sections of the Health and Social Security Act 2012, support the National Health Service Bill 2015, and voters taking great care as to whom they can trust. The future of the NHS could be in their hands.

J Guy Edwards

Emeritus NHS Consultant

Southampton

Reports that 40 per cent of NHS contracts are outsourced to private companies are bad news for the British public. Right across the board our public services are failing us because they are being outsourced to national companies, distant from the communities they are supposed to serve.

We have found that 78 per cent of people think public services should not be run for private profit and that 77 per cent think they should be run by the Government, local authorities or the voluntary sector, rather than by private companies.

Outsourcing to national companies results in public services which fail to meet people’s needs and waste money. And they are squeezing out locally based community organisations which can deliver better, more cost-effective services.

Our Keep it Local campaign is calling for fully transparent public service contracts built around the needs of local communities, as well as new laws which stop large organisations from running too many government contracts, and for small, local organisations to be able to bid for public service contracts.

Tony Armstrong

CEO, Locality, London N1

In 2012 I was in Singapore when I suffered from bronchial pneumonia.

I went to A&E at the National University Hospital at 9 o’clock in the evening. On registering I was given a $100 token to cover all initial costs, and a board in the reception area said I would wait 8-15 minutes before seeing a triage nurse. In seven minutes I saw one and they immediately admitted me to the intensive care ward.

I saw an A&E consultant, a cardiac consultant and a radiologist immediately. I was given oxygen, chest X-rays were taken, everything was monitored which could be monitored and I then spent three days in isolation (they were nervous of bird flu) with around-the-clock hi-tech care. And the cost for all this 21st-century care? £750.

When I asked local friends about the funding and payment for medical care in Singapore I was told that the main funding is from the government but everyone is then charged according to their ability to pay. This is done by swiping their identity cards at discharge; these have their tax codes on the bottom corner and individuals are charged accordingly. In my case I presented my passport, and therefore as a non-Singaporean passport holder paid the full rate.

This system avoids both the horrors of US parasitic private medicine and the UK horrors of everyone expecting everything for nothing, no matter how wealthy they are.

April Beynon

Mumbles, Swansea

Nepal’s lesson for the Mediterranean crisis

It is reassuring to see so many countries providing urgent aid and sending teams of specialists after another natural disaster. However, although Nepal is considered to be among the poorest in the world, nobody in the West has suggested that we open our doors to receive thousands of homeless people.

Can someone therefore explain why we cannot do the same for countries in Africa and the Middle East instead of allowing so many thousands of destitute people to come to Europe illegally, resulting in so many deaths and so much hardship.

Send in financial aid and specialists to African and Middle Eastern states to help build their schools, housing and economies too. It is time for a global Marshall Plan.

Peter Fieldman

Paris

Mixed message from Ukip

What sort of Alice in Wonderland world does Ukip live in? According to your article (28 April) Ukip’s housing spokesman, Andrew Charalambous, received nearly £830,000 in housing benefit receipts in the last tax year for property he rents out.

The article goes on to quote a Ukip spokesman stating that providing rented accommodation at taxpayers’ expense is a community service and that Mr Charalambous believes that immigrants should be entitled to state benefits.

Unless I am missing the main thrusts of Ukip’s policies, I understood that they wanted all benefits to aliens scrapped and non-EU immigrants to be denied entry to the UK. Maybe I just misunderstood their message and really they are all cuddly philanthropists.

Patrick Cleary

Honiton, Devon

Britain’s secret nuclear deterrent

How does Nick Pritchard (letter, 30 April) know that the Government has not already secretly scrapped Trident.

Terry Lloyd

Chorleywood, Hertfordshire