What a miserable day for Britain: another Tory budget with almost nothing of sense, never mind value, as George Osborne wriggles on his own hook (Report, 25 November). And his cancellation of tax credit cuts leaves him up the creek without even a canoe. I hope John McDonnell can get some better arguments together to make the British people wake up to the unfolding disaster of this government: five years of going backwards, and even their supporters are now realising they’re going the wrong way.
Just one item where clarity is needed: the £25bn in housing benefit goes solely to landlords (good and bad), all because people are not paid a proper living wage. Just last week you reported that half of Britain’s employers are whingeing about paying their employees the government’s “not-really-a-living-wage and not until 2020”. This rises to two-thirds in the hospitality sector, and three-quarters in health and care. It is disgusting to be cutting these vital financial supports when so many of these very same companies have given their bosses salaries that are out of sight. A tax on big business to fund apprenticeships is just pathetic in this reality: make them pay their existing workers properly first.
David Reed
London
• I’ve just had a wonderful idea which might help the chancellor who this week “struggled to meet competing demands to find extra cash”. Instead of trying to find £12bn from people who have hardly any money, why not get it from individuals, companies, banks and hedge funds who have lots of it? And if he wants to copy Jeremy Corbyn and give me a namecheck, I won’t mind in the least.
Fr Julian Dunn
Great Haseley, Oxfordshire
• You announce that the chancellor will hand the NHS an extra £3.8bn next year. While this is welcome, it is important to remember that last year the Treasury clawed back £3.2bn of “unspent” money from the same NHS. In reality, Osborne is only restoring the money he took back from the service while making it look like something new. Despite the rationing, cuts and closures the NHS has consistently returned money to the Treasury under this government. We were told it would be reinvested in the NHS, but thus far that has not happened. Perhaps this £3.8bn represents that reinvestment – but don’t let’s make the mistake of thinking it is new money. Osborne is just giving back what he took away while no one was looking.
Jacky Davis
London
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