The family of the Duke of Westminster deserves our sincere condolences for his untimely and sudden death (Obituary, 11 August). My parents died some years ago. They worked throughout their lives as general practitioners for the NHS. When they died they left their estate, the house they lived in, to my siblings and myself in equal shares. The house was sold at a sum slightly more than the inheritance tax threshold of the time; we paid 40% tax on the excess and divided the balance, after probate, between my brothers, sister and myself. We were content with our inheritance.
The duke’s estate has been widely reported as about £9bn: 40% of that could make a very useful contribution to the NHS, to schools, to social services. And yet, again widely reported, it is said that his heirs will inherit it all. While I have no doubt the tax arrangements are legal, they cannot be right or fair.
As long as ordinary individuals and families continue to pay their taxes, how can the rich not – and yet remain honoured by titles, befriended by royalty and applauded for their “generosity”?
Martyn Brown
Budleigh Salterton, Devon
• Big deal. The Duke of Westminster gave £500,000 to charity. That’s equivalent to me giving £20.
Guy Ellis
London
• Simon Hattenstone wonders whether the “new meritocracy” is a sham, due to the scale of inequality in Britain today (G2, 11 August). The answer was provided on page 3 of the main paper, where you report that Hugh Grosvenor, the seventh Duke of Westminster, has just inherited £9bn at the age of 25 – taking precedence over his older sisters.
Pete Dorey
Bath, Somerset
• Simon Hattenstone’s article misses the point. People often assume mobility is always upwards. In a closed unequal system the numbers going down must equal the numbers going up.
If you believe that mobility is somehow related to a moral notion of desert that may be attractive. But surely reducing the range of inequality is much more important if you want to increase the opportunity for the largest number of people to have a better life.
Mobility is of no real interest to progressives, as our society continues to grow steadily more unequal.
Professor Peter Taylor-Gooby
University of Kent
