Readers respond to Labour scrapping Winter Fuel Allowance for millions of pensioners (Picture: Getty)
Have your say on these MetroTalk topics and more in the comments.
If we want good public services then taxes need to rise
Mark (MetroTalk, Thu) is 100 per cent correct – if we want good public services then taxes need to rise.
Labour however have pledged not to raise the taxes that constitute some 60 per cent of government income. These are income tax, National Insurance and VAT.
So in October, chancellor Rachel Reeves will be looking at other ways to raise income and will inevitably be looking at the amount you can save for retirement without being taxed – pension tax relief.
This despite the fact that this relief is a tax deferred, not tax avoided – you’re not taxed on your contributions but you are when you draw down your pension .
In doing so she will dissuade many from saving towards their retirement, shifting the burden to future governments. And she has the gall to complain about the legacy she’s inherited.
This country is facing huge problems, which no party is prepared to face.
I certainly would not have pledged to keep income tax rates unchanged, a 1p or 2p rise in the basic rate would raise billions and all in work would contribute.
Studies have shown that we pay on average less tax than other OECD countries – it’s been said before but we can’t expect European levels of social assistance on US levels of taxation. John Daniels, Redhill
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The chancellor Rachel Reeves has said the government will have to raise some taxes in October’s Budget (Picture: Wiktor Szymanowicz/Future Publishing via Getty)
To Cuthbert (MetroTalk, Wed), the 88-year-old who will no longer receive the winter fuel allowance after Ms Reeves restricted it to those receiving pension credit. He says he will no longer be voting for Labour.
Labour do not care if you will be voting or not in five years’ time, this is why they have done this. It will be ‘heating or eating’ for the elderly all over again.
So many pensioners who decide not to heat a room will die of pneumonia/cold.
Those who decide not to eat will starve. It’s all a brilliant plan by Labour to get rid of more OAPs and save on the state pension! Well done Labour and well done to all who voted them in.
Their mantra was, ‘If you want change, vote for Labour.’ Well, change is just what we are all going to get.
As the old saying goes, ‘You reap what you sow.’ It is just a shame that we all get dragged into it because some have the mentality of a pea. And I bet you don’t print this! Carol Mason, Derbyshire
Protesters with their phones in Southport on July 30 (Photo by Getty Images/Getty Images)
Further to the riots in Southport and elsewhere by thugs who had hijacked the vigil for three girls stabbed to death at a summer school (Metro, Thu). I have never been so ashamed to live in this country.
Firstly because of the rioters themselves, but perhaps just as sickening was to see the public in the background filming the violence on their mobiles while a lone police officer was completely cornered. What sick pleasure did these voyeurs filming have? Stuart, Oxted
Now we know that Axel Rudakubana, the 17-year-old accused of the cruel attack on helpless children in Southport is from a Christian family.
He is not a Muslim, as alleged in dubious sources on social media said to originate in Vladimir Putin’s Russia.
Maybe the bigoted men who turned up in Southport and elsewhere have got enough brain cells to twig they are being played by evil liars on social media. They are Putin’s puppets not England’s heroes.
They are besmirching real patriotism by responding irrationally to a foreign dog whistle. Dan Hartley, Solihull
A case of Coke and mirrors for green Games and mobile thieves
Another example of green washing? (Picture: Marc Atkins/Getty Images)
In response to April and her experience of being forced to buy a plastic bottle to drink water at a Wembley Bruce Springsteen concert (MetroTalk, Fri).
I have just returned from the Olympics in Paris, which was hyped as the ‘greenest Games ever’.
Coca-Cola again was an official partner and its approach to sustainability at the venues was to make everyone buy a plastic cup (this on top of the cost of the drink) into which they decanted your Coca-Cola drink from a 500ml single-use plastic bottle. Imagine the plastic mountain at the end of the Games! Victoria Barnett, Epping
I have an idea to stop phone thieves, particularly those on mopeds, targeting people walking on the pavements. It is to equip every phone with a mirror that would enable people to see the would-be thief approaching on their mopeds.
The mobile phone user could then surprise the would-be thief by side-kicking their mopeds before they snatched their phone, unbalancing them and making them fall off their mopeds.
Hopefully this would cause them serious injury so as to teach them a lesson not to do it again.
This could also act as a deterrent to other potential phone-snatchers, as the news would soon spread about failed snatches and the serious injuries sustained by those ruthless, heartless, moped-riding phone robbers. Dr Wada Hosny, Redbridge
Should Olympics ring changes for woman with sporting advantage?
Imane Khelif (Picture: Fabio Bozzani/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Algerian boxer Imane Khelif should not have been given permission to fight against women participants in the Paris Olympics (Metro, Fri).
Opponent Angela Carini abandoned their fight after 46 seconds to ‘safeguard my life’ after reeling from two powerful punches.
The International Olympic Committee should have done what the International Boxing Association did at their 2023 World Championships, by banning Khelif from participating.
Khelif, although female, has XY chromosomes, usually found only in men. She also has high testosterone levels, which are, again, a biological characteristic of men and so had an unfair advantage. Al Charlton, via email
Lucy (MetroTalk, Fri) is appalled The 1975 are being sued because their kissing onstage caused a festival to be closed down in Malaysia, where homosexuality is illegal. ‘Homophobia is not “culture”,’ she says, ‘it’s just wrong.’
When in another country you have to abide by their laws and customs.
The band knew that kiss would get them into trouble and people had paid good money to see a concert which was cancelled because of them. Matt, Sheffield