Brexit Britain is broken – but there’s a blueprint for the government to fix it

With the Republic of Ireland’s finance minister recently announcing tax cuts and cost of living support in the Budget (“Tax cuts and child supports to dominate Ireland’s pre-election budget”, Tuesday 1 October), the contrast between Ireland and the UK could not be greater.

Ireland will run a €25bn (£21bn) budget surplus this year – and that windfall will be set aside for investment in infrastructure and tackling that nation’s challenges in housing, energy, water and transport.

The budget included €8.3bn (£7bn) in tax cuts and spending increases – alongside one-off cost of living support, double child benefit payments before Christmas and a €1,000 (£833) winter fuel payment for pensioners.

In contrast, continued Westminster austerity has seen the loss of the winter fuel allowance for 780,000 pensioners, cuts in vital public services and a warning from the prime minister that “things can only get worse”.

Brexit Britain is broken. A prospering Ireland illustrates what small independent countries with full control over their resources and economic levers can achieve.

Alex Orr

Edinburgh

Far be it for me, an infrequent traveller, to add to Simon Calder’s article on airport to city centre transport (“The easy part is being on the plane: airport surface links from great to terrible”, Wednesday 2 October).

But there is surely no incentive for airports to improve things when they can charge extortionate fees for dropping off and picking up passengers? Woe betide anyone trying to avoid these outrageous charges!

At Bristol airport, for example, they have managed to pass a bylaw allowing fines of £100 or more for anyone daring to slow down to pick up a walking passenger on the access road.

I notice that in more civilised and less greedy countries like Switzerland, airport drivers can easily pick up and drop off at the terminal door.

Geoff Forward

Stirling

In his speech to the United Nations last week (“Has the death of Hezbollah’s leader brought Israel any closer to victory?” Saturday 28 September), the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu held up a map of the Middle East. It shows Israel without Gaza or the West Bank. The Palestinian people have no place in Netanyahu’s Israel, it seems.

Leaders of the Western alliance continue to provide Israel with the means to defend their own innocent civilians – yet we are doing nothing to protect the innocent civilians of Gaza and Lebanon. Where is their “Iron Dome”? Our nation must stop selling bombs and attack missiles to Israel if we are ever to end this war.

Simon Fisher

Sellindge, Kent

How can this government be trusted to do anything if it cannot commit to paying compensation to those who have suffered such injustice from the Post Office scandal? (“Whistleblower told Post Office chairman ‘there is a class, race and gender divide at the top’”, Tuesday 1 October).

It’s particularly disappointing, given the former professional career of our current prime minister.

The previous government had committed to next March to pay all compensation. Why, then, can Labour not do the same – and promise that those guilty of causing the injustice will be prosecuted?

Jonathan Longstaff

East Sussex

I have a personal example of what happens when communication between local councils and residents breaks down: I live in Redbridge, a London borough. A major construction project at the site of a local high school – to build the new Wanstead Leisure Centre and swimming pool – is due to be finished next summer. Yet the estimate of completion of the building works (including important additional school facilities) by summer 2025 is woefully out of date.

The latest estimate is January 2026, which takes us into summer 2026... since you cannot transition into different premises in the middle of the school year. Jos Athwal, previously leader of Redbridge Council (and now an MP) originally promised completion by 2018! Meanwhile, there is ongoing disruption to the running of the school – and pupils having to queue for their lunch in the rain.

In March this year, the Labour council said its communications team was developing a strategy which would ensure local people and community groups would be “kept updated on the project progress”. Sadly, six months later, this has come to nothing. This failure of communication, in my view, indicates a lack of concern for the much delayed (and now, further delayed) project and the people affected, which is all too common in politics at the moment.

Alex Morton

Wanstead, northeast London