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When it comes to trade, Starmer has shot himself in the foot

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Wednesday 22 January 2025 10:09 EST
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Starmer is too concerned with upsetting the Brexiteers to negotiate with the EU
Starmer is too concerned with upsetting the Brexiteers to negotiate with the EU (Getty)

Why has Keir Starmer waited for Donald Trump to threaten to hold us to ransom instead of freeing up trade with the EU? (“Trump has Starmer ‘over a barrel’ on trade deal with UK facing economic turmoil, insiders claim”, Wednesday 22 January).

It was quite obvious when Trump was elected that he would screw us over – yet Starmer is too concerned with upsetting the Brexiteers to negotiate with the EU on an equitable deal. It would seem that even the foreign secretary joining the tech oligarchs in kowtowing to the new US administration has not persuaded Trump to give us favoured nation status.

David Felton

Crewe, Cheshire


Banking on it

Santander’s potential exit from the UK would deal a significant blow to competition within the banking sector, particularly in the mortgage market (“Major high street bank ‘considering quitting the UK’ after two decades”, Monday 20 January).

For a government striving to ensure financial stability and address the housing shortage, such a move could prove highly detrimental. It’s no surprise, then, that the chancellor is intervening on commission payments – a seemingly unrelated issue at first glance but one closely tied to maintaining trust and stability in the financial ecosystem.

Douglas Grant

Douglas, Isle of Man


NIMBY

It has often been said you are judged by the company you keep.

It’s interesting, then, that the USA has joined Iran, Yemen and Libya as the only countries not to have ratified the Paris Agreement... (“UK leaders urged to ‘step up’ as Donald Trump takes US out of Paris climate deal”, Tuesday 21 January).

Geoff Forward

Stirling


A drop in the ocean...

It is widely known and generally accepted that the UK emits around 1 per cent of the world’s greenhouse gases. But the net zero zealots such as Ed Miliband, Greta Thunberg and the Stop Oil fanatics still think we should cut our emissions even more! (“Just Stop Oil activists deface Charles Darwin’s grave inside Westminster Abbey”, Tuesday 14 January).

Therefore, I would like to ask a simple question to these climate crusaders: if, throughout the UK, we scrapped every petrol and diesel-driven car, bus and lorry, shut down every factory, closed every airport and grounded every aeroplane – what further benefit would these actions have in their fight against global warming, as the rest of the world carries on?

My uneducated and unscientific guess is minimal – if anything at all...

Peter Flynn

Owlerton, Sheffield


... and bigger fish to fry

I have read with interest and some irritation the recent letters to The Independent demanding that pensioners be taxed (“Time to tax retired pensioners?” Letters, Tuesday 14 January).

The simple answer is that they already are... but there is clearly an ignorance of some basic concepts.

Firstly, there is a fundamental difference between income tax and national insurance. The former charges pension income in the same way as earnings from employment in basic terms. So, if your income exceeds the personal tax allowance you are taxed. This applies to both the state and personal/occupational pensions so there’s no discrepancy there between those working and retired.

NI is another matter. It is charged on "employed earnings" whether from “employment or self-employment”. In what universe are pensions earnings? I do not see any clamour to charge NI on investment income!

Pensions derive from earnings that have already had NI contributions deducted to pay for them.

This whole issue is a red herring. There are bigger targets to aim at.

Ken McEvoy

Mortonhall, Edinburgh

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