Winning the welfare war
Peter Kellner (“A quiet revolution,” March) paints a picture that no MP in touch with constituents would doubt. Public opinion is on the move, and I welcome the change in views. But Kellner opts for greater means-testing as the only option. The alternative is to rebuild an insurance-based welfare.
Means-testing is seen by many of my constituents as an attack on their moral economy: people are rewarded because they can claim need and not because they contribute. It is difficult to overestimate the impact of Labour’s dance with means-testing on our supporters.
The government’s strategy of a universal credit is no more than a frenzied version of that of Gordon Brown, and is likely to blow apart on day one. Labour’s task is to set out an alternative vision of a “something for something welfare state,” and set out the initial steps to achieve this long-term objective.
The electorate won’t vote for tax increases but the selfsame voters do not see national insurance contribution increases as tax increases. Labour needs to set out an alternative route. I believe the electorate will wish to buy in to this vision providing we ensure that the new insurance scheme is owned by them, and not by the treasury.
Frank Field MP
London
Housing costs and benefits complicate the welfare picture. It is hard to get a room in a flat in London for less than £140 a week. Then add £30 for travel, £10 for council tax, £15 for lunch money—there’s not much left from £200. Working 40 hours a week at minimum wage pays around £250, minus tax, plus tax credits (soon to be reduced). This all adds up to about £260 a week—compared with about £210 on Jobseeker’s Allowance and housing benefits. An overall gain of fifty quid is not much to motivate anyone out of unemployment, is it?
John Munford
Brighton
Think the unthinkable
All three mainstream British parties are committed to the free movement of labour within an ever-expanding common market. New Labour opened the gates to cheap labour, not realising that this would undermine faith in the welfare state (David Goodhart, March). As for Conservatives, the lure of cheap labour blinded them to the economic burden of a growing underclass. Yet across the political spectrum there is an unwillingness to acknowledge that a necessary condition for getting the chronically unemployed off benefits is a rise in the minimum wage. Simply curtail immigration and unskilled pay will rise. Nothing less than the unthinkable, namely a British opt-out from the EU accord on the free movement of people, will do.
Yugo Kovach
Dorset
Crony capitalism
It is reassuring to be reminded that there are the likes of David Davis (March) in politics who share the widely held, if drowned-out, concerns of a great proportion of the decent public and small businesses. Capitalism is being undermined by individuals and companies that, though they advocate the market, are distorting it. Their cronyism and excesses have become cancerous. Adam Smith, in advocating rational self-interest, had in mind human beings acting on the basis of values that temper the tendency towards excess. This has been twisted by our elites to be synonymous with selfishness. We are the worst example of the very economic ideals that we recommend to other nations. We are being misled by special interests. It may be too late already, but Davis and others like him urgently need to be heard.
Peter Davis
King’s Lynn
I absolutely agree with David Davis. Big business has too much influence. Bad regulation of the banking sector got us into a mess. I blame all parties for this. If you let a dangerous dog off the lead and it bites someone, would you blame the dog?
Mike Taylor
Lancashire
David Davis’s piece was excellent—really one of the best diagnoses of our predicament that I’ve read. If his colleagues showed half the courage and wisdom he has shown here, we would be in a much better place. I only hope Messrs Cameron and Clegg are paying attention, but I fear that they are not.
Ian Greener
York
Does Scotland exist?
Although Rory Stewart’s piece (March) was framed in terms of individual choice and opinion, it might be best to view it in the light of his position as a Conservative MP. His party does not favour changes to Britain’s status quo. The Tories of late have done so crashingly badly at the polls in Scotland because this position largely manifests as a refusal to believe in Scotland as a country and in its people’s sensation of being Scottish as anything other than a popular delusion. Unionist belief in the union is not a belief, apparently, it is a fact. If, as we are encouraged by Stewart, we frame discussion on the union in these terms, we reach a sterile impasse almost immediately.
Stewart’s delicate repetition of the hotly contested idea that Scotland is a beggar state, supported by generous England, was again predictable. His piece merely continues generations of Conservative belief. The idea that Scotland used not to be Scotland as it is now and therefore cannot exist in a real way could be applied to pretty much any nation, certainly most of what we now think of as Europe. In this case, history—selectively rehearsed—is said to show that Scotland isn’t quite a real place.
Interestingly—or frighteningly—both sides of the union quote history to suit their ends and throw around statistics which might be convincing if economics hadn’t left the purity of maths so very far behind so very long ago. Both sides are also anxious to move the electorate into areas of belief—partly because the future is particularly difficult to predict at the moment, but mainly because they think this will win them the argument. I would hope that such an important and potentially fruitful discussion, which could invigorate the cultures of both countries concerned, could actually be lifted above the level of personal prejudice, myth and emotional manipulation.
AL Kennedy
Glasgow
Stealing Russia
I read Rachel Polonsky’s article (March) and wanted to add one important observation about Putin and Russia. The article talks about the Putin system as if it were a legitimate government in the western sense of the word. In my opinion, it is not. The experience of Sergei Magnitsky, my Russian lawyer who was killed in a state-sanctioned murder after testifying about the theft of $230m of government money, and then prosecuted posthumously, shows that Russia does not have a legitimate government. His case is just the tip of an enormous “corruption iceberg” where the primary objective of the regime is to steal tens of billions of dollars that belongs to the Russian people and divert it to buy properties, yachts and assets in the west. The scale and design of this stealing is so massive and well organised, that the people currently in charge of Russia cannot possibly be called a government, but rather a criminal organisation.
William Browder
CEO, Hermitage Capital Management, runs a global campaign for justice for Sergei Magnitsky
The Bulgarian solution
I wonder if Wolfgang Münchau (February) has considered an alternative way of leaving the euro to going solo in a world of floating currencies. Member states of the eurozone could leave and immediately establish a currency board backed by the euro, as is the case in Bulgaria. The assets of the central bank of the member state in question would therefore be in euros, which should help substantially in making the new currency acceptable around the world.
The state in question would still be in the EU and, through membership of the general council, would be eligible for assistance from the European Central Bank. It would therefore be subject to all the provisions of the recently established economic governance of the eurozone. This agreement would avoid the leap into the unknown that a straightforward departure from the euro would involve.
Alan Finnegan
Middlesex
Reach for the abacus
To make the transition from counting objects to place value and avoid the “twenteen” problem (“When it doesn’t add up,” March), it can help to have a simple abacus with nine beads per rod instead of the usual ten. Place it flat on a table, with the rods running as columns instead of rows. The far right-hand column represents units, the next tens, the next hundreds and so on. The number of beads placed at the bottom of the columns represents the required number. When counting, each count moves one bead down. When a column is full, move all beads back to the top for zero and move one bead in the next column.
Bridget Arregger
Wiltshire
The prophet Sedaris
I just thought I should congratulate David Sedaris (March). As I read the article I found that he was describing me down to the underpants. But as the article progressed he so humorously made me see that my religion is, and has been for so long, just a bundle of middle-class prejudices. He has shown me that people who change their sex, gays and abortionists are all just God’s diverse wish for the human race. In fact, and I feel nervous sharing this with you, he has even made me feel that there might not be a God at all. I mean, if God had wanted people to believe in him he would have made it more obvious. Otherwise we might have to make a choice on our own and most likely get it wrong, as I have all these years. There was I thinking that abortion was always wrong no matter what the circumstances, and that God would not be clever enough to sort out the occasions where it might be justifiable. Now, when I lie in bed on the last day of my life, I will know that the universe came into existence all by itself from nothing and that I need not worry about being judged for my actions because, like David Sedaris, all I have to believe in is myself.
David Hughes
Lincoln
Peter Kellner (“A quiet revolution,” March) paints a picture that no MP in touch with constituents would doubt. Public opinion is on the move, and I welcome the change in views. But Kellner opts for greater means-testing as the only option. The alternative is to rebuild an insurance-based welfare.
Means-testing is seen by many of my constituents as an attack on their moral economy: people are rewarded because they can claim need and not because they contribute. It is difficult to overestimate the impact of Labour’s dance with means-testing on our supporters.
The government’s strategy of a universal credit is no more than a frenzied version of that of Gordon Brown, and is likely to blow apart on day one. Labour’s task is to set out an alternative vision of a “something for something welfare state,” and set out the initial steps to achieve this long-term objective.
The electorate won’t vote for tax increases but the selfsame voters do not see national insurance contribution increases as tax increases. Labour needs to set out an alternative route. I believe the electorate will wish to buy in to this vision providing we ensure that the new insurance scheme is owned by them, and not by the treasury.
Frank Field MP
London
Housing costs and benefits complicate the welfare picture. It is hard to get a room in a flat in London for less than £140 a week. Then add £30 for travel, £10 for council tax, £15 for lunch money—there’s not much left from £200. Working 40 hours a week at minimum wage pays around £250, minus tax, plus tax credits (soon to be reduced). This all adds up to about £260 a week—compared with about £210 on Jobseeker’s Allowance and housing benefits. An overall gain of fifty quid is not much to motivate anyone out of unemployment, is it?
John Munford
Brighton
Think the unthinkable
All three mainstream British parties are committed to the free movement of labour within an ever-expanding common market. New Labour opened the gates to cheap labour, not realising that this would undermine faith in the welfare state (David Goodhart, March). As for Conservatives, the lure of cheap labour blinded them to the economic burden of a growing underclass. Yet across the political spectrum there is an unwillingness to acknowledge that a necessary condition for getting the chronically unemployed off benefits is a rise in the minimum wage. Simply curtail immigration and unskilled pay will rise. Nothing less than the unthinkable, namely a British opt-out from the EU accord on the free movement of people, will do.
Yugo Kovach
Dorset
Crony capitalism
It is reassuring to be reminded that there are the likes of David Davis (March) in politics who share the widely held, if drowned-out, concerns of a great proportion of the decent public and small businesses. Capitalism is being undermined by individuals and companies that, though they advocate the market, are distorting it. Their cronyism and excesses have become cancerous. Adam Smith, in advocating rational self-interest, had in mind human beings acting on the basis of values that temper the tendency towards excess. This has been twisted by our elites to be synonymous with selfishness. We are the worst example of the very economic ideals that we recommend to other nations. We are being misled by special interests. It may be too late already, but Davis and others like him urgently need to be heard.
Peter Davis
King’s Lynn
I absolutely agree with David Davis. Big business has too much influence. Bad regulation of the banking sector got us into a mess. I blame all parties for this. If you let a dangerous dog off the lead and it bites someone, would you blame the dog?
Mike Taylor
Lancashire
David Davis’s piece was excellent—really one of the best diagnoses of our predicament that I’ve read. If his colleagues showed half the courage and wisdom he has shown here, we would be in a much better place. I only hope Messrs Cameron and Clegg are paying attention, but I fear that they are not.
Ian Greener
York
Does Scotland exist?
Although Rory Stewart’s piece (March) was framed in terms of individual choice and opinion, it might be best to view it in the light of his position as a Conservative MP. His party does not favour changes to Britain’s status quo. The Tories of late have done so crashingly badly at the polls in Scotland because this position largely manifests as a refusal to believe in Scotland as a country and in its people’s sensation of being Scottish as anything other than a popular delusion. Unionist belief in the union is not a belief, apparently, it is a fact. If, as we are encouraged by Stewart, we frame discussion on the union in these terms, we reach a sterile impasse almost immediately.
Stewart’s delicate repetition of the hotly contested idea that Scotland is a beggar state, supported by generous England, was again predictable. His piece merely continues generations of Conservative belief. The idea that Scotland used not to be Scotland as it is now and therefore cannot exist in a real way could be applied to pretty much any nation, certainly most of what we now think of as Europe. In this case, history—selectively rehearsed—is said to show that Scotland isn’t quite a real place.
Interestingly—or frighteningly—both sides of the union quote history to suit their ends and throw around statistics which might be convincing if economics hadn’t left the purity of maths so very far behind so very long ago. Both sides are also anxious to move the electorate into areas of belief—partly because the future is particularly difficult to predict at the moment, but mainly because they think this will win them the argument. I would hope that such an important and potentially fruitful discussion, which could invigorate the cultures of both countries concerned, could actually be lifted above the level of personal prejudice, myth and emotional manipulation.
AL Kennedy
Glasgow
Stealing Russia
I read Rachel Polonsky’s article (March) and wanted to add one important observation about Putin and Russia. The article talks about the Putin system as if it were a legitimate government in the western sense of the word. In my opinion, it is not. The experience of Sergei Magnitsky, my Russian lawyer who was killed in a state-sanctioned murder after testifying about the theft of $230m of government money, and then prosecuted posthumously, shows that Russia does not have a legitimate government. His case is just the tip of an enormous “corruption iceberg” where the primary objective of the regime is to steal tens of billions of dollars that belongs to the Russian people and divert it to buy properties, yachts and assets in the west. The scale and design of this stealing is so massive and well organised, that the people currently in charge of Russia cannot possibly be called a government, but rather a criminal organisation.
William Browder
CEO, Hermitage Capital Management, runs a global campaign for justice for Sergei Magnitsky
The Bulgarian solution
I wonder if Wolfgang Münchau (February) has considered an alternative way of leaving the euro to going solo in a world of floating currencies. Member states of the eurozone could leave and immediately establish a currency board backed by the euro, as is the case in Bulgaria. The assets of the central bank of the member state in question would therefore be in euros, which should help substantially in making the new currency acceptable around the world.
The state in question would still be in the EU and, through membership of the general council, would be eligible for assistance from the European Central Bank. It would therefore be subject to all the provisions of the recently established economic governance of the eurozone. This agreement would avoid the leap into the unknown that a straightforward departure from the euro would involve.
Alan Finnegan
Middlesex
Reach for the abacus
To make the transition from counting objects to place value and avoid the “twenteen” problem (“When it doesn’t add up,” March), it can help to have a simple abacus with nine beads per rod instead of the usual ten. Place it flat on a table, with the rods running as columns instead of rows. The far right-hand column represents units, the next tens, the next hundreds and so on. The number of beads placed at the bottom of the columns represents the required number. When counting, each count moves one bead down. When a column is full, move all beads back to the top for zero and move one bead in the next column.
Bridget Arregger
Wiltshire
The prophet Sedaris
I just thought I should congratulate David Sedaris (March). As I read the article I found that he was describing me down to the underpants. But as the article progressed he so humorously made me see that my religion is, and has been for so long, just a bundle of middle-class prejudices. He has shown me that people who change their sex, gays and abortionists are all just God’s diverse wish for the human race. In fact, and I feel nervous sharing this with you, he has even made me feel that there might not be a God at all. I mean, if God had wanted people to believe in him he would have made it more obvious. Otherwise we might have to make a choice on our own and most likely get it wrong, as I have all these years. There was I thinking that abortion was always wrong no matter what the circumstances, and that God would not be clever enough to sort out the occasions where it might be justifiable. Now, when I lie in bed on the last day of my life, I will know that the universe came into existence all by itself from nothing and that I need not worry about being judged for my actions because, like David Sedaris, all I have to believe in is myself.
David Hughes
Lincoln
