Newbury Weekly News

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Thursday, May 11, 2017
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Newbury Weekly News
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citizens working here
Liberals want afairer,
more quitable society
I NOTE that in the opening rounds of
this June’s snap General Election,
the Conservative Party is already
publically mulling over the long-
term prospects for income tax and
VAT increases.
For a party which talks about
acknowledging and helping the
‘squeezed middle’ and the ‘just about
managing’, it continues to look to
squeeze yet more tax from the
proverbial stone, rather than look at
alternative sources of revenue to
create a more equitable society.
For instance, last year the charity
Oxfam released a briefing note
entitled How to Close Great Britain's
Great Divide: The Business of
Tackling Inequality.
The report makes reference to a
reputable banking report which
suggests that the wealthiest 10 per
cent of the UK population now holds
almost 54 per cent of the nation’s
wealth.
When I joined the Liberal Party six
years ago, it was still about 40 per
cent, rising to 44 per cent, and now
seemingly represents over half.
Much of this acquired wealth was
not earned, but instead inherited via
an opaque inheritance regime which
simply moves wealth from
generation to generation within a
limited clique.
To tackle this, the Liberal policy of
Universal Inheritance seeks to bring
about a gradually increasing
positive redistribution of inherited
wealth in a genuine Liberal
Opportunity Society, financed by
taxes on the transfer of capital from
each generation to the next.
It would provide every qualifying
young UK citizen at the age of 25
with a lump sum Citizens
Inheritance, initially modest but
increasing by a similar amount year
on year up to a significant level.
The scheme is cost neutral as it is
paid for by a reformed, exemption-
free, inheritance tax.
Although such a scheme does not
directly address the issues of the
national budget deficit, it does make
for a fairer, more equitable society.
No longer would some inherit
billions free of tax while others
inherit no capital at all.
STEPHEN GRAHAM
Newbury Liberal Party organiser
MY mum was a nurse and midwife
for more than four decades and
would come home from work
exhausted, her sandwiches uneaten
because there weren’t enough staff
on the shift for her to have a break.
She retired nearly a decade ago, but
the problem of understaffing is
getting worse.
There are thousands of unfilled
vacancies across the country.
The NHS wouldn’t be able to function
without international doctors and
nurses – including staff from the EU.
In the Thames Valley, nearly 10 per
cent of nurses and midwives are from
the EU, but they have no guaranteed
right to remain after the UK leaves
the EU.
During 2016, there was a 37 per cent
increase in the number of EU nurses
and midwives leaving the NHS
compared with the previous year.
The Government urgently needs to
provide these essential workers with
reassurance that they are welcome to
stay in the UK.
CAROLYNE CULVER
West Berkshire Green Party
Tactical votewillend
inaConservativewin
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Greens won 40 seats in the local
elections on May 5; UKIP won one.
Who got all the coverage on the news
and in the national press?
Whether I agree with them or not, I
always enjoy the letters in your
paper and the level of debate is
generally high and well-informed.
The contributions from regular
correspondents, such as Stan Green
and Peter Norman, are themselves
worth £1 of anyone’s money.
And where else would we find
brilliant original ideas like Michael
Pagliaroli’s to turn the control tower
at Greenham Common into a Star
Wars tourist destination? (‘Control
tower could have Star Wars future’,
May 4).
What a shame that Mrs English, who
claims she is going to stop reading
your paper because of its “bias”, will
never see this letter.
DAVID MARSH
Green Party election agent for
Newbury
THERE was a time when some moth-
ers told children that to fail to finish
their egg, turn it upside-down, and
smash it, would mean a sailor dies at
sea. There was no room for doubt.
Mum, of course, knew that English
allows her to use ‘could’ in that
sentence, and had she done so,
sailors might have felt somewhat
easier going about their calling.
When Richard Benyon deployed the
2010 flyer that said: “A hung
parliament would mean five more
years of Gordon Brown” he too was
at liberty to choose ‘could’ – but
didn’t.
He clearly intended to state a fact –
but it wasn’t. No one can be in any
doubt that the mother was lying to
the child to gain advantage.
BARRIE SINGLETON
River Walk
Shaw
Benyon used ‘would’
instead ofword ‘could’
WHEN people such as Mick Ayling
(Newbury Weekly News letters last
week) talk about voting tactically, do
they mean the type of tactics so
disastrously employed by Tom in his
attempts catch Jerry?
By Wile E Coyote to catch the
Roadrunner?
n Continued on page 22