IoS letters, emails and online postings (13 December 2015)

John Rentoul stated that Ukip was finished, and had had a “terrible general election” (6 December). Ukip achieved almost 4 million votes in the general election, and it was the failure of the voting system that stopped Ukip achieving more seats not the failure of Ukip.

We have the fast approaching European Union referendum galloping across the horizon. A referendum that would never have come to pass without Ukip demanding one.

Rentoul says Ukip’s only purpose is to leave the EU, when our policies have greatly developed over the past two decades, culminating in the magnificent 2015 general election manifesto. He calls Ukip “a party of protest”. That is just patronising and deeply offensive to the 3.9 million voters who gave Ukip such stunning support in May.

People seem to forget that Ukip has been around for less than 25 years, and has achieved so much. The UK party with the most MEPs in Brussels, 3.9 million votes in the general election, and more and more councillors elected every year.

Ukip is not finished, far from it, and regardless of the referendum result, Ukip will continue to listen to the people and deliver policies that appeal across the social divide.

Andy Monk
Ukip, NW Cambridgeshire
Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire

...

I’d hedge my bets about Ukip until the EU referendum. A narrow vote to stay in could lead to a Ukip surge, just as the pro unity outcome of the Scottish independence plebiscite helped to create the climate which saw the SNP virtually sweep the board north of the border last May.

Tim Mickleburgh
Grimsby, Lincolnshire

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Jane Merrick’s comments about the peace march held in Walthamstow on 1 December are irresponsible and inaccurate (“Momentum against women”, 6 December).

I was one of those “marching through the streets of Walthamstow” (two streets actually). I am not a Labour Party member, nor do I belong to Momentum, nor do I possess a Twitter account. I am an ordinary constituency member, exercising my democratic right to march peacefully to reinforce my message to my constituency MP to vote against the air attacks in Syria.

I also helped “deface” the Labour Party office by writing a post-it note with my message: “please vote against the bombing of Syria”. How hard is it to remove a post-it note?

The tantrum about Jeremy Corbyn’s election has gone on too long. And may I point out that the Labour leader has been subject to a sustained campaign of vilification, which Merrick does not see fit to mention.

Glynne Williams
London E17

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Your article of 6 December (“Tiny new fines no threat for global firms”) asserts that Vodafone has engaged in “abuse” in its tax affairs. I would like to make clear we reject this suggestion entirely. We do not artificially divert profits to reduce our tax liabilities or otherwise operate in a manner amounting to “abuse”. Furthermore, we already report our tax contribution on a country-by-country basis; we were the first telecoms company to do so.

Nick Read
Chief financial officer, Vodafone Group

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In the Money (6 December) photo, the Chancellor is standing on the wrong side of the wall. He has messed up the mortar bed, and got the face of the brick the wrong way round. Surely we are not that desperate for “human resource in the housebuilding industry” that we have to use such useless artisans?

Alexander Timms
Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire

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Sheffield is a great place. But the HSUK proposal (“Alternative line ‘would pay for itself’”, 6 December) has an uncanny resemblance to the schemes of Sir Edward Watkin, who transformed the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway into the Great Central, and had plans to run trains from Manchester to Paris. For investors, the first became called “Money Sunk and Lost”, the second “Gone Completely”. It never paid a dividend, and got no further than Marylebone.

Hugh Pennington
Aberdeen