Readers' letters: Mini-budget leads to run on the pound

The run on the pound on global stock markets highlights the clear scepticism there is of Chancellor Kwarteng’s mini-budget, as he pledges borrowing at increasingly expensive rates to give tax cuts to the wealthiest.

The £45 billion tax giveaway, including the abolition of the 45 per cent tax rate and cancellation of the proposed rise in corporation tax, will see almost half all the gains from personal tax cuts going to the UK’s richest five per cent.

Contrast this with the tightening to Universal Credit rules that will see a new regime of benefit sanctions, further bludgeoning the poorest.

The widely discredited “trickle-down-economic” theory the mini-budget represents is a massive gamble and one that will not succeed, pushing borrowing, inflation and interest rates higher.

Flying in the face of economic orthodoxy, it is a plan for recession, totally misguided and unsustainable, not creating growth but delivering economic chaos.

There was a time when even right-wing politicians feigned concern about the poorest in society, but the Chancellor could hardly hide his delight as he stuffed the wallets of the richest and gleefully held up his middle finger to the rest of us.

The decreased value of the pound on the back of this mini-budget has put further pressure on already struggling households, and fuelled by unsustainable public finances it is hard to see anything but dire economic consequences following.

Alex Orr, Edinburgh.

PM Truss got more votes than FM Sturgeon

Leah Gunn Barret writes that Prime Minister Liz Truss was chosen by just 81,000 Tory Party voters (Letters, September 23).

Think back to 2014, how many votes did Nicola Sturgeon get when talking over as First Minister from Alex Salmond?She was elected unopposed, no leadership contest there.

Truss will have to face the public in a general election in two years’ time, the voters can get rid of her then if she’s not doing well enough, that’s how democracy works here.Next she says US president Joe Biden doesn’t approve of the UK government’s economic policy, this from a president who has caused 40-year high inflation in the US by pumping trillions of dollars into their economy.

In the last 18 months Biden has overseen the printing of 80 per cent of all the money ever printed in the US, ‘quantitative easing’ is what you call it.

He’s even trying to get the definition of a recession changed to fool his public. So why on earth would we be taking lectures from Biden on economic policy or anything else for that matter?

Whether the current UK government economic policy works or not remains to be seen, I certainly have my doubts.

Because of Boris Johnson’s Covid lockdown policy, supported by all the devolved governments, the UK economy is trashed, just like many of us said it would be at the time.

It was already going to take decades to recover from the £450 billion borrowed for this and now we have the war and energy crisis to factor in as well.

We are in difficult times that are going to get worse, so if there was ever a time to stay in the UK, then this is it. There was no economic argument for independence before all this happened so there’s even less now.

I remain a ‘No’ voter and will continue to be until I hear a bit more substance than an independent Scotland will ‘grow our economy’ or ‘stimulate economic growth’ blah blah blah.

They will be promising us a not for profit Scottish energy company next…..

David Smith, Prestonpans.

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