The obscenely rich need to be properly taxed, for everyone’s sake

The news about poor maintenance of school buildings is the latest thing in the long list of governmental failures. It seems that responsibility for this one lies with the current PM when he was chancellor.

The two largest parties are competing in their efforts to woo voters in anticipation of the next general election. They both make promises they can’t keep, and set unreachable targets. That is because there simply isn’t enough money to pay for all that needs to be done. And the reason there isn’t enough money is because both parties fear unpopularity if they raise taxes.

Ours is a very unequal society. Many people are unable to afford food, fuel and housing, while corporations make huge profits and some CEO’s are paid enormous salaries plus bonuses. And many of the wealthy contrive to pay taxes at a lower rate than the rest of us. The obscenely rich should be properly taxed. Many of us who have more modest incomes and savings, but belong in the ranks of the “comfortably retired” would willingly pay taxes at a higher rate, not only because we might have children and grandchildren who would benefit, but also because it would simply be the right thing to do, for everyone’s sake.

But those who aspire to lead us seem to have lost sight of duty and social responsibility. They can only do what is best for their party, in acquiring power at any cost. A plague on both their houses!

Susan Alexander

South Gloucestershire

It is becoming clearer by the day that the government has abandoned its custodianship of the nation’s welfare and finances in favour of piling up the problems in order to make matters worse for those who follow them into office.

The longer they can leave crises concerning asylum seekers, the cost of living, national health waiting lists, school buildings, pay disputes and so on, for someone else to deal with, the more difficult they will become to solve.

Such a cynical attitude can only have one goal: to ensure that a Labour government has to make the hard decisions that may cause them to be unpopular with the electorate and pave the way for a Tory return after a single term out of office.

And what then – devoid of a vision for national recovery, they will fall back on the only trick they know; deregulation to serve the rich and leave the rest of us to pick up what scraps we can.

Graham Powell

Cirencester

At least 100 schools have been forced to close because reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac) was used in their construction and they are structurally unsafe.

While doing a series of interviews on the crisis, education secretary Gillian Keegan was caught asking in exasperation “Does anyone say: ‘You know what, you’ve done a f******** good job because everyone else has sat on their arse and done nothing?’”

This comment came a few hours after Keegan admitted she “didn’t know” £32m was being spent on refurbishing her department’s headquarters and comes five years after the roof of Singlewell Primary School collapsed due to Raac and 13 years after then education secretary Michael Gove announced he was scrapping Labour’s school rebuilding programme to “save” £55bn on the basis the scheme was “dysfunctional” and “unnecessarily bureaucratic”.

Keegan thinks a callous disregard for the lives of working-class children shows the Tories have “done a f******good job”.

What it actually shows is the Tories don’t know their a*** from their elbow.

They must go.

Sasha Simic

London

It is unacceptable for people experiencing mental health emergencies to spend days in accident and emergency departments.

We must all be confident that if we experience a mental health crisis, we can access help quickly. Many people in such situations need both emergency medical and psychiatric assessment, which means the emergency department is ideally suited for the initial response. But when patients who are psychotic, suicidal, or highly distressed face long waits for the next stage of treatment, this can exacerbate symptoms and delay recovery.

Early access to care, support and treatment is crucial to alleviate suffering and prevent deterioration, though cannot prevent all mental health difficulties from getting to crisis point. We need urgent investment across mental health services, including community-based treatment and crisis services. The Independent’s article demonstrates that we also urgently need sufficient inpatient beds so patients can be transferred promptly out of A&E.

While we have seen investment in mental health services in recent years, this has not kept pace with need, and your article demonstrates the case for considerably greater funding and resources.

Dr Alex Thomson

Chair, Liaison Psychiatry Faculty, Royal College of Psychiatrists

Britain has some of the best young minds on the planet. Our universities are the envy of the world and students flock to the UK to attend our world-class schools.

However, a report revealed this year that more than 6 in 10 manufacturers surveyed believe that young people are not coming through the education system with the necessary manufacturing skills.

Last month’s GCSE and A-Level results showed too that boys continue to dominate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (Stem) subjects. And as a result, I worry we are missing out on the talents of our brightest young women.

As the MD of a manufacturing business in the northwest of England, I frequently visit schools and colleges to talk to youngsters about careers in the high-paid, fulfilling jobs on offer in our sector.

At every school I talk at, I’m confronted by teachers who are surprised we even have a manufacturing sector left, and who are then shocked when I tell them it’s the eighth biggest in the world.

How can the children get excited about things like robots, 3D-printing, or the ingenious inventions that high-tech manufacturing will make possible if their teachers don’t even know it’s an option? Perhaps we should offer summer placements for teachers to educate them about manufacturing first?

I believe passionately that primary school is the place to first get children excited about making things. Putting engineering and manufacturing at the heart of the national curriculum for primary schools would represent a massive investment in Britain’s future that would yield huge returns for decades to come.

David Millar

Managing Director, Heap & Partners