Spare a thought for carers this Christmas

As we come to the festive season, I urge everyone to spare a thought and give thanks to all the carers and other workers who forego their Christmas and New Year break to care for others. They will doubtless be out in all weather this winter to make sure people are kept safe and well. They are our heroes.

We can all do our best to help one another this Christmas. There are some for whom the festive period can be the loneliest time of the year, so if you know of anyone in that position, call in and say hello – it will make their day.

Here’s hoping for a better, happier and safer 2023 – merry Christmas and a happy New Year!

Mike Padgham

Chair, Independent Care Group

Measuring the success or failure of economic policies should be a key part of future decision-making. Unfortunately, this is usually done in terms of GDP, which measures all forms of economic activity, good or bad. To give an extreme example of the latter, building a house, knocking it down the next day and then rebuilding it adds to GDP at every stage, but hardly increases human happiness.

We should instead be measuring quality of life to decide what is likely to be best for the future. Somewhat surprisingly, the government has accepted this approach in tackling the soaring cost of heating a home, accepting that this requires not just grants to help with cost of heating this winter but also a scheme to help pay for insulation to reduce those costs in the future despite the fact that this will reduce GDP.

However, in general the decision-makers focus almost solely on action to increase economic growth, often without any real analysis of the long-term benefits or damage. We need a measure of human happiness to sit alongside GDP to give us a realistic sense of the effects of economic policies.

Paul Burall

Norwich

I don’t think I have ever read an article quite like Colin Drury’s in yesterday Independent. Tears welled up as I read through the haunting dialogue Mr Drury had with the inhabitants of Oldham and the surrounding area.

The Tories make much noise about the fact that they have been in government for the majority of the past 50 years. It brought home the fact that their tenure has been such a disaster for Britain, especially the last 12 years.

People of Oldham should be justly proud of the efforts of their welfare and charitable organisations, as should all others in the country. Without these dedicated people, many more impoverished households would have been worse off – if that were actually possible!

It is inconceivable that Britain can be in this parlous situation. Food banks, emergency funds, papers running charity programmes, free school meals explosion, etc. The list of “aid” required in such a prosperous country is an indictment of gross mismanagement by the Tory government over a prolonged period.

In my view, Britain is at its lowest ebb at present, needing competent, honest and immediate action to turn the tide of our social downturn. I am afraid that the current government has lost control of our future, preferring to stay in power rather than concentrating on doing what is best for the British people. They have run out of ideas, repeating the same formula that didn’t work in the past with disastrous effects.

They have used sticking plasters to alleviate problems in our health system, immigration control, benefits system and many other crucial infrastructures. They have also frittered our hard-earned tax away on failed or unnecessary projects – the Rwanda resettlement scheme, HS2, Covid-19 fraud etc.

I am proud of the British people. It is we who can change our future for the better in 2024.

Keith Poole

Basingstoke

Anna Whitehouse presents the advantages of flexible working, and it can clearly be beneficial in certain types of work. She criticises Sir James Dyson for resisting it, but he runs a manufacturing business.

Most modern manufacturing is based on teams of employees working together in a heavily mechanised environment. For example, an assembly line needs the full team to be present so that every workstation is managed, and the same applies to continuous process industries such as chemicals or metals.

It is unrealistic to propose that all employees should be able to work flexibly, and those who want it must be selective in their choice of work.

John Wilkin

Bury St Edmunds