Identifying how many pensioners will face the “tough choices” in your Leader (30 August) is no easy task. It’s clearly not ten million; as you say, two and a half million of those pensioners are themselves millionaires. But what of the rest?
I’m 74, I own my home and have a modest occupational pension. I pay council tax in band D. I’m in the group Martin Lewis thinks should continue to receive the winter fuel payment, but it would be dishonest of me to claim that it will be difficult to pay my energy bills this winter. For much of the time I was paying for my home, I enjoyed mortgage tax relief, no longer available to younger people struggling to pay mortgages that are eight to ten times the average salary. Liz Truss’s “disastrous mini-Budget” was not so disastrous for me or the 75 per cent of pensioners who own their homes outright, many of whom have also received a boost to their savings from higher interest rates. My triple-locked state pension has risen by 21.25 per cent in the past two years while workers have endured over a decade of below-inflation increases. Intra-generational inequality has to be addressed. I hope the Chancellor will refine the crude cut she is making, but I have no doubt that it needs to be made.
David Collier, Leeds
Notes on a scandal
I am a retired GP, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading Phil Whitaker’s article on the NHS (The NS Essay, 30 August). Recently I was called to my GP practice for a pneumonia vaccination and blood pressure check. I was invited into the treatment room by a very young man using my first name. He did not introduce himself, but as I didn’t know him, I asked if he was a physician associate (PA). He said he was a “GP assistant”, so not a medical associate profession (MAP) with a two-year degree. He asked personal questions, recorded weight, blood pressure and did the intramuscular injection. Upon further questioning, I discovered he was 18 years old, between school and university, and a quarter of my age.
I assume that if I had reacted to the injection, he could call for assistance, but I cannot help feeling that my 14-year-old grandson could have done the same job.
Ann Appleyard, West Wickham
In his recent essay, Phil Whitaker has written on the symptoms and mistreatment of a malady in the NHS (medical associate professions, or MAPs), but not the cause. MAPs are a fig leaf to cover the corruption of the NHS caused by privatisation and the deliberate undermining of resources by Jeremy Hunt and Simon Stevens. Wes Streeting does not seem to understand this. He recently visited Australia to better understand England’s NHS, which is like going to Leeds’ rugby league club to better understand rugby union. I suggest Streeting would have been better advised to take the train to Newcastle and the Population Health Sciences Institute, where Allyson Pollock is the most authoritative Labour voice on the NHS.
John Carlisle, Sheffield
Pull the plug
Wolfgang Münchau seems to share the view of some modern Germans that Putin has no interest beyond Ukraine, and post war they can go back to buying gas from Russia. This is flawed logic. Putin has for more than a decade stated that Russia has a perpetual right to the territories it controlled at the end of the Second World War. Before the invasion, Kremlin TV told Russians that to have security and superpower status, Russia needs a population of 500 million, a figure that can only happen if the Warsaw Pact territories are reclaimed.
Having your energy needs met by a single country, which is also a hostile power, is not energy security. Putin is aware of Germany’s vulnerabilities, and is consequently working Russia’s disinformation machine to exploit the mindsets of the hard left and right. My fear is that an expansionist Russia will either be stopped in Ukraine, or it will have to be stopped on or within the borders of the EU. That is Germany’s gamble.
RJ Holman, Edinburgh
Mum’s the word
Megan Gibson’s review of Helen Charman’s Mother State (The Critics, 30 August) prompted me to reflect on what it means to be a mother. I chose not to return to full-time work over 30 years ago when our first child was born. My husband and I both learned “on the job”, muddled through, and are immensely proud of our two wonderful adult children. Our instinctive drive to protect and love our children needs a society of citizens who have been nurtured similarly. Charman wants collective political organisation in order to divert the full responsibility of motherhood away from individuals – but we must still be free to choose. We must correct economic inequality. Presently there is little choice for new parents, indeed high numbers of individuals conclude they cannot have children at all. Our politics and passion must work together, otherwise emancipation will not be possible, just different forms of veiled coercion. Patricia Askew, Kingston upon Thames
Do not adjust your setts
I am a great fan of Rachel Cooke’s TV reviews, but Brian May’s work on the badger cull (The Critics, 23 August) is no joking matter. Since 2011 around a third of the badgers in England and Wales have been killed, with no improvement in bovine TB. May showed what was long obvious: it is cattle that infect badgers, not the other way round. The new government has announced that badger culling will end by 2029. It should stop now.
Ann Lawson Lucas, Edinburgh
Rachel Cooke’s review was a frivolous response to a deadly serious issue. By the end of 2024, the number of badgers shot dead is expected to reach 250,000. The programme never pretends to be light entertainment. Yet Cooke seems more interested in whether May should cut his trademark curly hair. May has been an animal welfare campaigner for decades. If she thinks the main story here is a rock guitarist’s transition into an animal advocate, she needs to pay more attention to what happens in our countryside.
Emily Rawlins, Todmorden, West Yorkshire
Sin for your supper
Rev Richard Barrett (Correspondence, 30 August) quotes that, “God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.” Seventy years ago, I read the catechisms as my mates prepared for confirmation. The core idea seemed that sin had to be paid for by suffering, though the sinner needn’t be the one to suffer. I remain heathen.
Connaire Kensit, London
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This article appears in the 04 Sep 2024 issue of the New Statesman, Starmer under fire