Period products shouldn’t be tax-free – they should be free

Please send your letters to letters@independent.co.uk

The UK government has pledged to scrap the so-called “tampon tax” next year. This it is claimed is fuelling period poverty, and will save the average woman £40 over a lifetime. While it is undeniable that they should never have attached VAT to period products in the first place, like so many other items to which VAT is now applied, it is disingenuous to claim that saving £40 over say 60 years or about 0.2 pence a day will help alleviate period poverty. Much better to follow the example of the Scottish government, and make essential sanitary product free.

Graham Forward
Stirling, Scotland

Hostile environment

In response to the “no-platforming” of Amber Rudd, a number of politicians have vented their annoyance. In particular, Gavin Williamson is reported as saying that he expects the University of Oxford to take robust action, and that if universities are not prepared to defend free speech, the government will. It is a pity he was not so exercised when African-Caribbean people were subject to the full force of the “hostile” environment and being deported under Rudd’s watch.

Christopher Lee
Chester​

The kidnapper of Dubai

So the UK’s most senior family judge has found that Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, ruler of Dubai, was complicit in kidnapping his daughters. Am I missing something, here, but doesn’t that qualify as a criminal act? Where’s the international arrest warrant?

Rob Prince
South London

Queen’s cousins

It is suggested that King Eadbald of Kent is the Queen’s 40th great grandfather. Each of us has two parents, so going back forty generations potentially involves a trillion ancestors each (two to the power forty), implying massive duplication of family trees. It is therefore very likely that we are all descended from these Kentish royalty, one way or another.

John Wilkin
Bury St Edmunds, Ipswich

Bridge of sighs

I have lived in East Sheen for 52 years so have experienced many closures of Hammersmith Bridge. It is clear, however. that this time drastic measures are needed to provide a bridge suitable for purpose for the next 100 years.

I would like to see the old bridge moved downstream and to be used by pedestrians and cyclists only. In its place, a thoroughly modern bridge could be built, thus ensuring fewer extremely expensive renovations/conservations at what will probably be at shorter and shorter intervals if the present plan goes ahead.

Penny Smith
South London