I am 71 years old and have worked virtually all my life, but now live on three pensions, which puts me just into the income tax bracket. I cried when I read the budget statement (Report, 9 July), although I will be financially a little better off as a result. But the quality of my life will be damaged by the realisation of all the poor and vulnerable people who will be further damaged. George Osborne achieved at least one thing – Labour will remain the party for everyone in this country with a heart and a conscience.
Beth Mottart
Redruth, Cornwall
• Osborne is running a one-nation economy in a society that can’t effectively utilise the endeavours of the entire working-age population. Consequently, those without a job will increasingly find they have no viable place in society. Anyone wishing to include the excluded will have to develop a self-sustaining economic model that generates jobs and income for the unemployed. As Tsipras has discovered, taxes won’t compensate indefinitely for political failure.
Martin London
Henllan, Denbighshire
• As the eldest of 10 children from a mining community in Durham, I was the first in my family to get a degree. I was only able to do so because I had a grant (Report, 9 July). If I’d had to have a loan I would not have even applied. I reckon in my 34 years as a teacher, I have more than paid back my loan through taxes.
Christine Lomax
Stockport
• Your front-page headline, The chancellor giveth … and he taketh away (9 July), reinforces my long-held belief that Mr Osborne bases the entire economic policy of the government on Matthew 25:29: “For whoever has, to him more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him.”
David Wheatley
Margate, Kent
• I think I misheard Osborne before the election. He must have been talking about creating a “Northern poorhouse”.
John Tickner
Southport
