Eight letters on the inheritance issue (20 May) but the real problem for most pensioners in the here and now is the threat to withdraw the winter fuel allowance from all but the very poorest pensioners (those on pension credit who actually apply for it – the Tories are still not saying where the axe might fall, but the threshold has to be low to raise the money).
For most of us just above the threshold this is crucial, amounting to a removal of most of the pension increase for this year. This is the issue Labour should be campaigning on. (We’re less bothered about our inheritance as we’ll be dead then, but don’t expect to leave much more than £100,000 in any event.)
Chris Morris
Lancaster
• Scots pensioners are to get their winter fuel allowance, not apparently for electoral reasons but because of the cold. In the words of David Mundell, the Scottish secretary, his nation has “different climatic issues” compared with those to the south.
In summer he is right. Winter isotherms, though, run north and south rather than east and west. Taking an average January temperature of less than 4C as “cold”, the elderly of Edinburgh and Aberdeen would get their cash, but so would those of York and Skegness. Glaswegians would miss out, as would Mr Mundell’s Dumfriesshire constituents. Time for some electioneering?
Steve Jones
London
• Lives are being cut short as a result of government policy. The Office for National Statistics has reported that there were 24,300 excess winter deaths in England and Wales in 2015-16. Excess winter deaths had been falling for many years but under the Tory and coalition governments there was no further fall in the five-year average despite significantly milder winters. The NHS and, to an even greater extent, social care continue to be under extreme pressure, and no further reduction seems likely.
You report on the very high numbers of deaths caused by atmospheric pollution in the UK (18 May). The government is ignoring its legal obligation and has no effective plan to reduce pollution.
In Mrs May’s first year as home secretary, 2011, there were 190 deaths in prison, a number exceeded in only one of the 12 full years of the preceding Labour government. In every year since then, the number has increased, reaching 345 in 2016, more than twice as many as in most years of the Labour government.
Mrs May’s guiding principle seems to be: “Thou shalt not kill but needst not strive, / Officiously, to keep alive.” Why do election campaigners ignore this?
Tom Stanford
Newcastle upon Tyne
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