Why won’t the government act now to save the economy?

Letters to the editor: our readers share their views. Please send your letters to letters@independent.co.uk

With the latest economic forecasts why is the government waiting to make any changes? (PA Archive)

Next year may see the start of an economic recovery but what we must ask is how far has the UK fallen in the first place?

Even the latest economic forecasts for 2023 show the UK lagging behind Italy, France, Japan, Canada, the USA, China, and even Russia, according to the International Monetary Fund.

Pubs and shops have already had to close due to the price of energy and more people are being pushed into poverty every day.

So instead of waiting until 2024, why won’t the government act now?

Thankfully, Labour has a plan. They will act by cutting small business tax rates, encouraging the buying and selling of British produce both here and abroad, and will lower energy bills for good with the creation of GB Clean Energy. They are the party we should trust and the one that will make Britain energy independent once again.

Geoffrey Brooking

Hampshire

Made in Britain?

The parlous state of our economy and the retail sector suggests that markets are looking back to the grim 1970s for guidance. I prefer to look forwards, though lessons from history should not be ignored. Globalisation has harmed our manufacturing and farming sectors and the prioritisation of short-term profit over long-term performance to suit shareholders today rather than the economy tomorrow has defined political policy as well as the boom-and-bust nature of our performance in most sectors.

Global collaboration with resilience and a sound local market may not be the most profitable, or the cheapest, but it is surely the most stable and safe.

If there is a single thing that I can like about Brexit it is the ability to shamelessly promote British products and manufacturing and give them preference in any procurement process. Our manufacturing has declined so much that buying a British-designed and manufactured item is extremely difficult. Buying home-grown produce from supermarkets is equally difficult.

We should encourage firms to declare the provenance of their goods and the total value of UK goods and services in their offerings. Not only will this help us decide what to buy, but it will also help reduce the carbon impacts of our lifestyle choices. Local is good for British jobs, the economy, and the future.

Michael Mann

Shrewsbury

Another vaccine success for Oxford

In amongst all the bad news regarding wars, police incompetence, government mismanagement, Biden being mean to the UK, cost of living, and more, there was one ray of light that came shining through, in yesterday’s world news.

The fight to reduce/stop malaria deaths has a new champion, again it’s Britain’s Oxford University Jenner Institute. Those wonderful people, who produced the Covid-19 drug which safeguards the world, have yet again produced a vaccine that is currently being administered to young children in Ghana.

It purports to be effective in 75 per cent of cases of malaria sufferers from the threat of severe effects and to reduce the death rate. Ghana is the first country to be using the new drug after a period of testing.

What a wonderful development for the people of Ghana, and the world. Long may the Jenner Institute continue to make the world a safer place in which to live. Let’s have more reporting of the good things happening in Britain helping the world.

Keith Poole

Basingstoke

A dreadful Conservative legacy

Your campaign to help the Afghan pilot who is threatened with deportation is justified and welcome.

When the USA and the UK pulled out of Afghanistan it was clear that there would be many citizens who would be at great risk from the returning Taliban. Those who did not get out are now living lives of fear and isolation.

The pilot is lucky to have found a route to the UK; the fact that he has been so poorly treated is shocking, but there are hundreds if not thousands more Afghans who helped the US and UK during the last 20 years, all of whom deserve assistance and the possibility to come to the UK to start a new life. The government appears determined to make seeking sanctuary as difficult as possible, in keeping no doubt with its continuing policy of creating a hostile environment for all immigrants.

Government ministers appear to have no humanity, led as they are by the last two home secretaries, Priti Patel, and Suella Braverman, who seem to delight in being as nasty as possible to those in need.

What a dreadful legacy to leave in the name of Conservatism.

Steve Edmondson

Cambridge