Letters: The Chancellor should be brave and ditch the most hated tax in Britain

SIR – There are reports that Jeremy Hunt, the Chancellor, may tinker with inheritance tax in the Autumn Statement (November 16).

He should be brave and just scrap it. I have already proudly paid an enormous amount of tax, and when I die I think it is unfair for my estate to be taxed again. My children and grandchildren deserve to have it.

Dr Robert McKinty
Darlington, Co Durham

SIR – About 700,000 people die in this country every year. Collecting inheritance tax involves thousands of highly paid public sector workers, professional surveyors, valuers, lawyers and accountants, as well as being extremely time-consuming for executors and beneficiaries. Reducing the rate levied or changing the threshold will not reduce the number of people involved in its collection.

Most other countries recognise the inequity and complexity of this tax and have scrapped it. Time the UK followed suit.

Peter Collins
Altrincham, Cheshire 

SIR – In more than 30 years as a funeral director I have never once heard a bereaved family mention Inheritance tax. Many, however, have seen everything their parents worked for swallowed up in care home fees. I strongly suggest that the Chancellor look in this direction first.

Andrew Cook
Willingham, Cambridgeshire

The Rwanda ruling

SIR – Anyone listening to the judgment delivered by the President of the Supreme Court on the Government’s Rwanda scheme will have been highly impressed with the thoroughness of his material, his demonstrable logic and the clarity of his arguments.

He explained what his task was; the relevant pieces of legislation involved; its supporting evidence; and the inescapable conclusion. 

What a shame the Government does not seem to have anyone clever enough or diligent enough to have come to the same conclusion months ago.

Charles Russam
Hanslope, Buckinghamshire

SIR – The Prime Minister has vowed to strike a new treaty with Rwanda declaring the country (which is more than 6,000 miles away) “safe” for refugees, which is odd given that these illegal immigrants have already come from a “safe” country, a mere 20-odd miles from where they landed: France.

Gary Spring
Ringwood, Hampshire

SIR – Suella Braverman is now demanding that the Government should contrive a Rwanda policy that cannot be challenged in the courts (report, November 17). 

She is a lawyer, yet her answer is to rip up the law and international treaties. Has she considered producing policies that are legal?

Frank Dean
Stockport, Cheshire

Policing protests

SIR – David Evans (Letters, November 13) says he attended a Palestinian rally because he “cares about the deaths of innocent civilians” and questions how that could be thought anti-Semitic.

My question is, did he attend any similar mass rallies against President Bashar al-Assad, who slaughtered 600,000 of his fellow Muslims in Syria, or against Vladimir Putin, who deliberately bombed Ukrainian schools, hospitals and energy supplies? How about rallies in support of Israel, following the cold-blooded murder of 1,200 innocent civilians on October 7? 

The demands of the Palestinian protesters require Israel effectively to lay down its arms, forget about hostages and allow Hamas to regroup and rearm. This won’t happen outside the protesters’ fantasies. 

Alan Tomlinson
Cheadle, Cheshire

SIR – I read that the Metropolitan Police could not arrest protesters climbing on war memorials (report, November 17). 

How fortunate that the pro-Palestinian demonstrators did not climb the same monuments that eight Greenpeace activists were arrested for scaling in April 2016.

David Lawrence
London SW19

RAF sea missions 

SIR – I was delighted to see a picture (November 13) of representatives of the Royal Air Force Marine Branch enjoying a drink after the Sunday Remembrance parade at the Cenotaph. Little is known about this section, but its personnel did vital and dangerous work in the Second World War, saving ditched pilots from drowning off our coast. It’s estimated they rescued about 13,000 lives - friends and foes alike. 

They would rush to the rescue, often through minefields or under fire, in high-speed, all-wooden boats, which were affectionately known as “whalebacks” due to their graceful deck lines. 

These boats were powered by aircraft engines, which meant that they were faster than the average car of the time. There are moves afoot to save and restore the last remaining whaleback for posterity.

Steven Hale
Chilton, Oxfordshire

SIR – You chose the RAF March Past as one of the 10 best military tunes (Features, November 12). It was ascribed to Sir Walford Davies, but no mention was made of Sir George Dyson. 

Davies wrote the first section, incorporating the rhythm of the old Flying Corps call with that of the Royal Naval Air Service, to create a new RAF call. Dyson, who had taken over from Davies as the RAF’s second organising director of music, composed the broad central melody and created the shape of the march as a whole. He also scored it for bands and conducted the first performance. Credit where credit’s due.

Paul Spicer 
Chairman, Sir George Dyson Trust
Rugeley, Staffordshire

Value of consultancy

SIR – Let’s not talk Britain’s high-performing industries down (“Good riddance to the consulting gravy train”, Business comment, November 12). The United Kingdom is one of the leading professional service centres, providing trusted specialist advice across the globe.

Our sector is worth £20 billion to the UK economy and employs more than 100,000 people in more than 350 offices, with record numbers of apprentices and school leavers. 

Our sector is not “coming off the rails”, as Matthew Lynn asserts. We are helping businesses in every part of the UK and our latest data shows the sector is forecast to achieve double-digit growth this year and next, and achieve record exports overseas. 

Given the fluctuations in demand since Covid, some readjustment is expected, but our sector continues to have a strong economic and social impact across the country, of which we should be proud.

Tamzen Isacsson
Chief executive, Management Consultancies Association
London EC3 
 

Unhelpful HMRC

SIR – On November 2 HMRC announced, without any apparent irony, that it will adopt a “bold” new approach to assisting taxpayers with their queries (Letters, November 12). HMRC says it will “reduce the volume of contact through phone and post by at least 30 per cent by the financial year 2024-25, compared with 2021-22”. It then blithely asserts that taxpayers will just need to go online to make up for the shortfall. 

Following the closure of the self-assessment helpline for all of last summer, this further undermines the HMRC charter and its promise that the organisation will “be responsive” and “make things easy”. 

Perhaps taxpayers should also reduce their future tax payments by at least 30 per cent in protest.

Michael Cooper
Addington, Kent

SIR – Nevermind HMRC howlers (Letters, November 12), last year I attempted to close my account with BT. After multiple attempts online and several frustrating phone calls, I was assured it was finally done. 

Since then I have received an email every month telling me my monthly bill is ready. The amount? £0.00.

Christine Tomblin
Nottingham

Hollywood stars who hid their British accents

SIR – Cary Grant was not the only British Hollywood star to adopt a permanent, pseudo-American accent (report, November 7). Michael Rennie, who was very successful in the 1950s, was another. He was coached so well that most Americans believed he was one of them. 

In the early days of filmmaking, accents didn’t matter because the movies were silent. Many Americans would not realise that Charlie Chaplin, Boris Karloff and Stan Laurel were British; but once the talkies came along, a British accent could be problematic.

To this day, Americans never cease to be amazed when award acceptance speeches reveal that the winner, who was assumed to be American, is in fact British. Indeed, until recently the three top superheroes – Batman, Spider-Man and Superman – were all played by British actors.

To me, Grant’s transatlantic accent was rather pleasing. After all, the whole point of being an actor is to pretend you are something that you are not.

Nicholas Young
London W13

Vaping for good

SIR – I am encouraged by reports that the Government might tax vapes (November 8). 

Like thousands of people, after 50 years of smoking cigarettes I have weaned myself off the habit by using vapes. Yes, they’re addictive, but they don’t damage my lungs in the way cigarettes do (I felt better within 48 hours of switching) and they don’t smell either.

I buy tobacco-flavoured vapes because I want to stop smoking cigarettes. Children, however, buy vapes because an array of sweet, fruity flavours are available to tempt them. Therein lies the problem.

So let’s make it illegal to sell vapes to anyone under the age of 18, and let’s ban all flavours other than tobacco, so as to ensure vapes are used only to help smokers give up cigarettes.

Elisabeth Boss
Bath, Somerset

Listening in the car

SIR – I have followed your recent correspondence on Alexa with interest (Letters, November 12). 

We have a current model VW Golf with “voice activation” – the prompt words are: “Hello Volkswagen.” Recently, we were driving through Cheshire. The radio was switched off, but, as usual, it was automatically connected to my iPhone.We were talking about the cost of a VW dealer and I said “knowing Volkswagen, it will be a gold standard service”.

We were totally perplexed when, moments later, the Status Quo compilation album 12 Gold Bars came pumping out the speakers.

Beware, VW cars have ears.

Roy Wilkinson
Nantwich, Cheshire

Noddy’s nativity

SIR – In the build-up to Christmas, would it be possible to have a nationwide ban on playing certain Christmas records from the 1970s?

There is nothing more certain to drive me out of a shop before I have bought anything than hearing Noddy Holder yelling “It’s Christmas!” at the top of his voice.

David S Ainsworth
Manchester

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