Sir, – For the first time since his inauguration, President Donald Trump has told the truth when he said that he has no interest in the NHS.
It would make absolutely no sense for him or his Republican Party to want a service that supplies health cover to all citizens free at the point of need.
In the USA a third of the population have no health insurance at all.
The other two-thirds have to spend a fortune on personal health insurance.
What will happen if Boris Johnson signs up to a trade deal with Trump’s government is that all medicines bought from the US will have massively increased costs.
If you don’t believe me just check what has happened to other countries who have trade links with the US.
Trump has forced concessions from Canada, Germany, Mexico, Japan and South Korea which have greatly increased the cost of medicines and medical equipment.
Trump’s government will do this to the UK if we are stupid enough to let Johnson away with signing a one-sided deal with the US.
On top of this there will be private health insurance companies opening up private health facilities throughout the UK and there will be nothing we can do to stop it.
So although Trump hasn’t directly touched the NHS he will have undermined the service so much that it will collapse due to not being able to afford the medications and equipment needed.
We will then follow the US model where a third of our population will have no health cover and the remainder will have to pay through the nose for the treatments we now take for granted.
While all this is happening, the right-wing Tory elite and their billionaire backers will be laughing all the way to the bank.
Harry Key.
20 Mid Street,
Largoward.
Labour plans vs small business
Sir, – I am the owner of a small business giving 32 staff members a monthly income. With the economy suffering at present through the Brexit delay, we are not experiencing the growth we planned for in 2019. Further delay such as proposed by Labour will result in the economy continuing to suffer and businesses will continue to struggle and grow to support the employees and their households.
I am also deeply concerned about Labour’s proposed reforms and the ultimate cost that will end up on businesses like ours up and down the UK. Their plans to finance these proposals will be crippling. It will involve taxation that is equal to 38% of national income – an all-time record, higher even than during the Second World War.
How do Labour expect small businesses to sustain growth and profitability and provide the UK with the needed income through sensible and sustainable taxation when their policies go right against this?
Edward Smerdon.
Parklands,
Benvane Rd,
Glenrothes.
Discouraging prosperity
Sir, – I don’t get it. Everyone knows that in today’s modern world, business is essential to keeping the wheels turning – nothing happens until a sale is made, as they say.
And yet the Labour manifesto clearly demonstrates a working against business and a discouragement of all economic prosperity. If they were given the reins, things would be disastrous, not so much for the already rich but for those who are already poor.
As an owner of an SME with 35 staff, when things tighten, it’s my team and those around me who feel the pinch the most. Staff don’t get their bonuses, my wife doesn’t get the same spending money and my kids know that Dad’s grumpy! And then, as all the mini economies like mine don’t invest and spend, it has a knock-on effect throughout the whole economy.
Surely we don’t want prolonged uncertainty and flawed tax regimes that will suppress business?
Surely we want the UK to prosper which in turn will benefit the biggest percentage in greatest need of elevation in their circumstances?
Dale Paterson.
2 Glenwood Road,
Leslie.
The real election question
Sir, – The wrong questions are being asked.
The real question is: “Why is the precious Union so desperate to keep hold of us ungrateful whinging subsidy junkies?”
Once we get an honest answer to that, all will be clear, the rest will be irrelevant.
Jim Clark.
8 Thistle Place,
Scone.
A difficult result to predict
Sir, – I note your correspondent George McMillan bemoans the presence of a Brexit candidate to split the Tory vote in Perth and North Perthshire (“Splitting the Tory vote”, Letters, December 2), but this is a very multi-layered election and very difficult to call.
Anything could happen.
We know from 2016 that it is SNP supporters who are actually the most pro-Brexit, more so than the Tories, and that is even more likely to be the case in Perthshire.
A Brexit candidate could just as easily take more votes from the SNP than the Tories, perhaps those SNP voters who are not prepared to go across directly to the Tories as many did in 2017.
I cannot imagine Pete Wishart will be too complacent.
He will be concerned about losing pro-Brexit supporters to both the Tories and the Brexit Party.
There is a strong chance the Labour Party offering will entice some of their voters back again, and many will see the Liberal Democrats as genuinely more pro- European than the SNP are.
I won’t be putting any money on the result, either here in Scotland or in the country as a whole.
As someone has said recently, if you think you know what is going on, you obviously haven’t been paying attention.
Victor Clements.
Mamie’s Cottage,
Aberfeldy.
Green dream has poor vision
Sir, – Most parties’ election campaigns are majoring on climate change and dangling the huge carrot of green jobs and industries if we vote for their policies.
But where will these new jobs come from?
I read the Green Party’s 5,000 word “Industry and Jobs” policy document and found only one example of job creation.
In section 2.3.3 “New Green Jobs” it says “New Industry areas will need to be developed and will create significant new employment”.
Besides being blindingly obvious, surprisingly the only example of this growth it could give was “if all beer packaging were returnable it would require the employment of a further 4,000 people in the UK.
It was about how people on Citizens Income (yet another untested policy) could supplement their income by recycling beer cans and bottles.
Not exactly the dream of new hi-tech, high paying jobs.
It’s more a vision of a dystopian future where the marigold-glove-clad poor clamber over the local landfill site collecting empties.
So far Scotland has failed miserably to create green industries.
For example, most of our wind turbines are imported, and the SNP’s 2010 forecast of 20,000 offshore wind jobs actually produced 1,900.
Allan Sutherland.
1 Willow Row,
Stonehaven.
