I understand the Bank of England is considering changing its policy on quantitative easing.
I am also led to believe the existing policy leaves the bank as the major holder of roughly 30% of the total UK Government debt via the policy of buying back government bonds held by commercial banks. If the Bank of England is nationalised this in effect means we now owe a significant debt to ourselves.
If it has been fiscally acceptable to do this why not take the policy to its natural conclusion and clear the debt altogether?
David J Crawford,
131 Shuna Street, Glasgow.
I am confident Iain Macwhirter reflects the view of many of us in his views on bank criminals, wondering how Chris Huhne can face a jail sentence for trying to divert blame for his driving misdemeanours while the banking kleptocracy escapes with a simple wagging finger for its money-making scams ("We have to take action to dismantle the kleptocracy", The Herald, February 7).
The banks are penalised, but since the fines are partly paid by us taxpayers one can only assume they're having a laugh. Trevor Matthews is having a laugh. Having received a £2.5 million "golden hello" from Aviva, following £1m gardening leave from Friends Life, he's now stepping down to an advisory role. Not bad; making £3.5m, plus salary and other incentives, in 18 months, for jobs apparently badly done. This disparity with the millions on the poverty line makes me angry. Yet our politicians are too afraid to do something about it.
Paul Shaw,
20 Argyle Way, Dunblane.
One of the more polite comments on George Osborne is that he must be asleep at the wheel. He is without doubt a most competent Chancellor. He has protected the value of the assets of the rich through the most severe recession we have ever experienced.
What makes me so angry is that the cushion I put aside for my retirement has gone after only three years. No cigarettes or booze or foreign holidays and soon no car. Yet all my money has gone to protect the crooks in London.
The real tragedy is that many Scots want to perpetuate this set-up when they are being given an option to leave.
Neil McKie,
20 Ash Hill, Evanton, Dingwall.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article