Tax cuts before an election are nothing but a bribe

The chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, is widely expected to cut taxes in his March Budget. However, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), has announced that if his tax giveaway were to be true it would be detrimental to Britain’s future. They further clarify that it would be “very challenging to achieve” with an aging population and high government debt.

And, of course, it has been discovered that this giveaway will benefit those on high salaries while pensioners and low-paid workers will pay a heavy price to enrich those already able to withstand financial hardships. However, Hunt is undoubtedly taking his orders from Rishi Sunak to sweeten the economy in order to win this year’s election.

The state of our country, especially the economy, has taken a serve nosedive since the Tories came to power 14 years ago. You’d think that with all that time spent on honing the economy, the Tories would achieve success. But instead the economy is in a parlous state swinging between being in a depression and barely paying our way.

We seem to be in financial crisis year after year. The Tories’ handling of our disastrous economic failure is a direct result of mismanagement and infighting by an incompetent, cavalier government. The quicker they are ousted from No 10, the better for all of us.

Keith Poole

Basingstoke

Why can’t the Tories put themselves, and voters out of our collective misery and call a general election now? The overused phrase "the will of the people" is not about flights to Rwanda, it is the desire for a change of government now, and not some unspecified time this year, or early next.

Hopefully the Conservative Party as it is now will be dead in the water, and spend many years in the political wilderness as various factions fight it out. Perhaps then as a nation, we will finally really become a democracy and have a form of voting where every vote matters.

Sandra Kelly

Worthing

We have heard Nicola Sturgeon speak today (31 January) at the Covid inquiry about deleting WhatsApp messages and retaining on a government device only those that were “relevant”. Other Scottish parliamentarians, including John Swinney and Humza Yousaf (now first minister), have spoken in the same terms.

Particularly after the announcement that there would be a statutory inquiry, in 2021, this was improper. It was not for those centrally involved in decision-making and policy formation to decide what materials were or were not relevant. That judgment was surely for Baroness Hallett and her court.

Jill Stephenson 

Edinburgh

For Rishi Sunak’s government to reject the recent ruling of the International Court of Justice has shamed this country. In refusing to call for a ceasefire in Gaza, the government of the UK, and its opposition, are complicit in the violence that is claiming thousands of innocent lives.

How many will suffer or die in Gaza before this government’s justification collapses? The government of the UK, along with nine other countries including the US, Australia and Italy, have taken Israel at its word and are imposing collective punishment on 2.2 million Gazans.

Sasha Simic

London

What is the purpose of kicking up a stink over food delays if it is a regular feature of our island life?

Every time there is a storm in the English Channel, ferries are cancelled. That means that lorries – many refrigerated – are also delayed, often by several days. Dover and other ports have huge parking facilities to accommodate those.

Too much time is wasted arguing over everyday events instead of focusing on how to do the essentials.

Albert Halliday

Glasgow