Letters: Truss's utter incompetence should have come as no surprise to anyone

Consolidating those criticisms has been the Bank of England's rushing to the rescue of government bonds to stave off their collapse with all that would have meant to the stability of the pound, weak as it is ("Bank of England in bond-buying scheme to 'restore orderly market conditions'", heraldscotland, September 28).

Three weeks into her premiership, Liz Truss is now staring into the economic abyss into which the pound could plunge, leaving our economy in tatters. It is quite telling that she has not ventured to appear in public to address this crisis.

The jitters are being felt very clearly with the outcry which has broken out in various quarters against the measures so recently put in place by the Government.

Our PM is in line for a humiliating end to her premiership if this crisis deepens. She could make the history books not only as economically incompetent but also as having the shortest-ever tenure of No 10.

No one can say that there was no warning about her incapacity for office as she had shown on her way up the greasy pole that she was unfit for high office.

She would be well advised to opt for a General Election in the hope that the electorate would back her for daring to risk unpopularity with her outrageous policy of going for broke with her trickle-down economics, the gamble of all gambles. It is always better to go down fighting rather to have to resign in shame and slink off into the shadows to lick one's self-inflicted wounds.
Denis Bruce, Bishopbriggs

Easing my doubts on indy

ARE Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng really so stupid as to not anticipate the consequences of their actions? If not, what was their motivation? Whatever, they are doing more damage to the UK economy than Vladimir Putin.

People are really struggling and anything they might gain from the assistance on energy bills is but a drop in the ocean compared to other rising costs, especially mortgages, when interest rate rises kick in. The way things are going, there are bound to be many more mortgage and general debt defaults. Will that undermine the stability of the banking sector? The return of negative equity for many people is a foregone conclusion.

From a personal view point, as a retiree, I am seeing my pensions crash and the value of the money they represent lose 15%-plus of their purchasing power. My house, I read, is likely to drop around 15%. I am fortunate, however, in that I am better placed than many to ride the storm – but not without damage. How those on average incomes with young families can cope does not near thinking about.

I am angry, really angry and if I had doubts about independence, they are diminishing by the day. The reckless disregard of the consequences of their ideology and “I am right” arrogance is just breathtaking. More than anything, what is feeding my anger is the thought that we can do nothing about this probably until 2024. What a depressing prospect.
Nick Robinson, Wemyss Bay

High taxes do disincentivise

I FIND myself conflicted on the taxation debate currently ongoing. I am comfortably off, though it was not always so. I do agree that the poorer members of society need help but disagree that all the people who pay, or paid in my case, top rate tax are super-rich and I find such language distasteful and offensive. They include "fairly normal" people who have simply done well.

In my personal experience, high tax rates do disincentivise. Around the time when I was transitioning from a family man with young kids, a large mortgage and not a lot of spare money, to a more affluent pensioner, I found that I was about to reach the point at which the tax authorities started to take the basic allowance off you. This occurs, or certainly used to, at a point well below where the top tax rate kicks in. At that time I would have been paying an equivalent of 60% tax together with National Insurance and, perhaps selfishly, resented it and was comfortably enough off to decide I did not require the money.

It was project work and I simply stopped my overtime working, thereby keeping myself below the threshold. The only person who benefited from this was myself as my job was fairly stressful. Given that every £1 I earned was an export, being paid for by a Norwegian firm, British society lost that benefit together with the 40/60% tax benefit, the British firm for which I worked suffered loss of profit and the project itself no doubt suffered to an extent.

My point is that I was prepared to pay the 40% tax rate but not the 60% tax rate and there is a level, for this conflicted individual at least, where high taxes disincentivise, thereby causing damage to society as a whole. I doubt I am alone.
Angus MacEachran, Aberdeen

SNP ought to compromise

I CAN probably agree with Isobel Lindsay (Letters, September 28) that the tax cuts announced by the Chancellor are an abomination and dangerous. However, we need to be a little circumspect about what actions need to be now taken by the Scottish Government, bearing in mind that this Tory Government is heading for the exit door in two years or less.

Getting rid of your top talent is a very risky scorched earth idea. Many of these people are not greedy but wish to take care of their families too. Most are only in their positions because of their talent, not greed.

As an example I give you Ferguson's. Completely deskilled and denuded of its top talent by 2014, it has found it near impossible to recruit (local) experienced engineers and management. In the 1980s Inverclyde had a population of 120k, today it's less than 80K. The best and brightest took their skills elsewhere.

As a one-time engineering apprentice I cannot underestimate the skills I learned from many experienced engineers and managers as I built my career. Don't think for a minute that if you cast aside your experienced talent that there will be no consequences. Mao tried that, it didn't work.

I hope the SNP Government is a bit more considered than Ms Lindsay and perhaps compromises with a marginal reduction to say 42p or 43p to reduce the risk of talent flight in the interim.
Ian McNair, Cellardyke

Time for change here too

I NOTE an interesting article from Adam Tomkins suggesting that the Tories have been in power too long, that they are moribund and change is needed ("Why I, as a Tory, want Labour to be the next UK government", The Herald, September 28).

May I respectfully suggest that exactly the same situation pertains with the SNP Government in Scotland. After 15 years, this is definitely a Government that is fresh out of ideas, indeed a lot of its "good ideas" end up costing Scottish taxpayers dearly.

Time for a change indeed.
Celia Judge, Ayr

Sturgeon should forget indyref2

ANYONE hell-bent on voting for an independent Scotland should be urged to watch Tuesday's BBC1 Scotland Disclosure programme on the ferries scandal (September 27). While independence could be preferable to the current rule from Westminster, surely the mind-boggling incompetence of the present SNP should prevent it ever governing Scotland.

The amount of money the taxpayer is being asked to pay to get these ferries on the water is eye-watering and totally inexcusable. Please, Nicola Sturgeon, you and your ministers focus on the day-to-day running of our country and its nationalised industries. Forget a referendum and do not let a fiasco like this occur in the future.
Ian Smith, Symington

• IF anyone is in any doubt about who is to blame for the ferries fiasco and the subsequent damage to our west coast communities and national reputation for shipbuilding, just ask yourself the question "Who would have been taking the credit if everything had went according to plan?" Who would have been there at the front of the queue to get their photo taken?

By definition, that person must also be responsible now that things have went badly wrong.

It isn't very difficult to work out. You can’t be responsible for something when it suits you, but have nothing to do with it when it doesn't.
Victor Clements, Aberfeldy

• HAVING watched the BBC documentary on Tuesday night, clearly someone is “away with the ferries”.
Michael Watson, Glasgow

Read more letters: So what if the whingers leave?

Letters should not exceed 500 words. We reserve the right to edit submissions.