Banks won’t let this chance pass
Sir, – Collapsing the economy to make life easier for the NHS, and thereafter having millions unemployed, is a remote concept for most of our politicians, who vary between the financially illiterate and the privately wealthy.
Also, as the banking system is the intermediary, not much government financial assistance will get to the businesses or individuals for whom it is intended, just as happened to the Quantitative Easing money a few years ago, when £375 billion intended to help the economy, and administered by the banks, basically vanished.
No matter what cover or protection the government gives to the banks, they will still demand personal guarantees and a charge over assets from individuals and businesses before parting with a penny.
This is the banks’ big chance to finally own or control us all, and they are not going to let it pass.
Malcolm Parkin.
Gamekeepers Road,
Kinnesswood, Kinross.
Health a distant second to financial interest
Sir, – The coronavirus pandemic is a challenge for the human race.
It has tremendous social, political and economic consequences.
The reaction by politicians and the financial oligarchy shows that their class interests are irreconcilable with the welfare of the bulk of the population or even with the continuance of life on earth.
The oligarchy have now set their sights on ending the lockdown prematurely. This is in order to start making profits for the billionaires.
Since 2008 austerity has been the policy of UK Governments. It has dismantled public services and not reduced government debt.
This has coincided with the worst wage growth for nearly 200 years.
The financial plutocracy has seen Covid-19 through an economic lens. They are unconcerned about the death rate. For them the disruption to the economy is their only interest. They worry about financial bubbles bursting and seeing their own personal fortunes decline.
The propagandists of the right are framing this as a choice between lockdown and economic armageddon. That’s a false choice.
It’s being presented because capitalism does not want to pay for the things needed to make workplaces safe, as that means fewer profits for the one percent.
The problem is that the one percent who caused the problem are being bailed out again.
They can use the government bailout money to buy up businesses who are not recipients and go under. This is nothing less than a return to feudalism.
Following on from the 2008 bailout; banks did the wrong kind of lending. They lent not to extend production but; so that corporations could buy back their own stock to create a bubble.
Alan Hinnrichs.
2 Gillespie Terrace,
Dundee.
Priority to end lockdown
Sir, – To give a balanced picture during lockdown, the government should publish weekly figures for lost GDP, lost tax revenue and the increase in unemployment.
We should also know how many patients have had cancer and other vital treatment delayed or cancelled. Each week the increase in the national debt, which is already a horrifying two trillion pounds, should also be announced.
Health statisticians will then be able to estimate how many extra deaths, there are likely to be as a result of the lost growth, extra unemployment and untreated patients.
Very quickly ending the lockdown would become a priority.
Otto Inglis.
Ansonhill, Crossgates.
Experts must end lockdown
Sir, – When will lockdown end?
This is a very salient topic of recent days.
It will require the people with the correct data sets, to debate the timing and method of the release.
I do not relish their task, as people’s lives are at stake. More people will die if they get it wrong.
I am sure that these experts’ efforts would be better served if the ‘pressure groups’ on the sidelines would wind their collective necks in and stop playing the economy card in one column and condemning the Scottish Government handling in another.
The economy is important. It is, however, people that make and drive the economy.
If the proponents of opening up the economy have data that shows that by holding the lockdown beyond a certain date it will cause more deaths than Covid, then they should provide that data for examination by the experts.
Let the experts decide. Mr Gove are you listening?
Alistair Ballantyne.
Birkhill, Angus.
Home delivery for vulnerable
Sir, – Given the lockdown must end before a vaccine is likely found, may I suggest the existing home shopping network run by supermarket chains should be given entirely to the elderly and vulnerable for their food.
Some sort of access code should be issued for them and a bar placed on those without one.
Home shopping after the lockdown will no longer be a necessity for most, but will certainly be for the vulnerable.
Leslie Milligan.
18B Myrtlehall Gardens, Dundee.
Life ‘without parole’ is no life
Sir, – As someone nearing his four score years, the recommendation that the over-70s be kept in permanent “lockdown” until a coronavirus vaccine is available is profoundly depressing.
Clearly those proposing such a plan have no idea how many years it takes to develop a vaccine or that it is much less effective in older people with their weaker immune system.
As the idea is sufficiently idiotic to be taken seriously by this government, I face a sentence of “life without parole”.
Is there the option of a ticket to Zurich’s Dignitas Clinic?
Rev Dr John Cameron.
10 Howard Place,
St Andrews.
Dishing up the wrong message
Sir, – Public sector caterers have pledged to slash meat dishes in schools, universities and hospitals by 20% in what they claim is a major move to cut greenhouse gases linked to livestock.
This is unacceptable and dictatorial and has no place in a free society.
Do these green virtue signallers not realise that there are one billion cattle, one billion sheep and 900 million pigs in the world plus millions of sacred cows? The UK’s share of global emissions is only 1.13% so their meat diktats are meaningless?
Covid-19 will reduce emissions to the level that the Paris agreement demanded in the very near future.
Will these public sector caterers and their staff show commitment and pledge to never fly, never own, drive or travel or have goods delivered in a petrol/diesel vehicle and turn off their gas?
Clark Cross.
138 Springfield Road,
Linlithgow.
Shame on the Sunday drivers
Sir, – To the drivers of the 100 or so cars that went up or down the Abernyte road from the A90 on Sunday April 19, most with couples or families in them.
You should be named and shamed by the police for jeopardising the health of the rest of us, and refused any NHS services whilst this emergency is with us.
J Hunt.
Inchture,
Perthshire.
