Putting up the minimum wage will cost us dear
I’m pleased to see attention being paid to the possible long-term effects of the minimum wage (mail), and it’s as well to mention the impact it will have on small businesses such as ours, which employs ten people.
We now have a pension scheme in place and it’s already costing us £250 a month. Our firm is contributing 1 per cent a month and the figure includes an admin fee from the pension provider because we’re so small.
Next year, we’re expected to contribute 2 per cent to pensions and 3 per cent the year after. Factor in the increase in the minimum wage, and I dread to think how much we’ll have to pay by 2020.
We’ll almost certainly have to put our prices up, making us less competitive, or reduce our workforce, leading to us not being able to offer the personal, efficient service we provide at the moment.
I intend to enlist our mp’s help in highlighting this worrying problem.
VAL CROISSANT, (Barton Building Supplies), Barton-upon-Humber, Lincs.
Brexit gamble
ECONOMISTS, politicians and journalists on both sides of the Brexit debate should know better and refrain from claiming the moral high ground each time data is published which seems to give weight to their side of the argument.
You don’t need a degree in economics to know the consequences of Brexit will be unknown for many years, and until then everything said is pretty much mere speculation.
the only undeniable consequence of Brexit is that the UK and the EU will become both trading partners and competitors.
Once the new rules of engagement are finalised, it will require years of trials and tribulations to see if the Brexit gamble pays off or not, just as it took decades to observe the relative economic decline of post-war Britain (which carried on, ironically, until it joined the EU in 1973).
a further irony is that in the 1975 referendum on whether Britain should leave the EU, a majority of tories favoured membership, the labour party was split and the SNP was totally against it.
maybe a future generation will conclude that Brexit hasn’t paid off, try to negotiate new terms for EU accession (probably worse than the current ones) and hold a referendum to re-join the EU.
ANTERO TOUCHARD, Soto de Vinuelas, Spain.
Online abuse
the high level of cybernat online abuse is perhaps not so puzzling when you see the example set by Nationalist mp angus MACNEIL.
Recently he tweeted: ‘are scots still falling for this GERS [Government expenditure and Revenue scotland] deficit p***? some fools do like to be fooled.’
this is juvenile stuff unbecoming of a Westminster mp and, to boot, patronising and insulting to scots. typically, we then have the usual SNP dogsbody wheeled out to ‘weasel word’ their way out of it.
Bear in mind the GERS figures mr MACNEIL sneeringly denigrates form the same spending analysis he and SNP cohorts, pre-IndyRef1, gleefully claimed as ‘the bible’ of economics when basking in the glory days of gushing oil revenues.
this asinine twittering seems to be a malaise among SNP politicians, as we also have notables such as mhairi Black, John mason, paul monaghan and of course ‘tweeter-in-chief’ pete Wishart continuing to insult our sensitivities and intelligence.
DEREK DREVER, Troon, Ayrshire.
Cost control
I am puzzled by the way our Government spending is out of control. meanwhile, Nicola sturgeon is flitting around europe… why?
everyone knows scotland cannot become a member of the EU unless we apply and with our mounting debt (getting higher every day) we could not possibly meet the fiscal requirements of the EU.
Our deficit of £14billion and rising is out of control, so who will pay this bill?
We have what amounts to a scottish embassy in New York costing £3million a year… why?
What about the people living in abject poverty in places such as Glasgow’s Govanhill – what would £3million a year do for them?
We must realise this is an experiment that is out of control and should be scrapped immediately. JOHN DALLAS, Uddingston,
Lanarkshire.
Who’d trust Israel?
REGARDLESS of the number of UN resolutions Israel ignores, no criticism of its leadership is forthcoming from a conservative Government. a distinguished member of British Jewry, sir Gerald Kaufman mp, believes this is because the conservative party receives Jewish money.
Furthermore, sir Gerald believes the actions of the Israeli government don’t reflect well on the reputation of Jews worldwide.
When he rose at prime minister’s Questions to ask the Government to take issue with an Israeli action, he was slapped down by david cameron with a sharp reply.
Official documents released recently show that, during the Falklands War, Israel sold argentina warplanes that were used to bomb the British fleet.
Israel denied this at the time, but has since changed its plea, justifying its actions by saying that Britain sells arms to their enemy, saudi arabia. so much for trusted allies.
A. A. G. VINCENT, Bath.
Defend Morris dancers
SO shrewsbury Folk Festival won’t be booking any more Border morris sides because they dance with blacked-up faces, which it regards as racist. What tosh! this is a 500-year-old tradition which hasn’t caused offence to anybody.
how many of the organisers of the festival have any idea as to what Border morris is? It’s a tradition which is important to our folk history, along with many others.
please leave our traditions alone. the many varied members of our society in this country have no objection to a group of people practising a hobby and providing pleasure to many people: folk is for everyone. CHRIS LOWE, Aylesbury, Bucks.
Soft parenting
We have laws to protect people and see that distress isn’t caused by offensive remarks, and it’s time something was done to protect the ears of those going about their everyday business.
I was in a bank the other day, trying to read a statement, when there was an earth-shattering scream that went right through my head and almost made me dizzy.
It emanated from a pram near the counter, and I couldn’t help myself saying to the mother: ‘does she have to do that?’
the mother shouted at me, with defiance: ‘she’s a child!’
even so, I said: ‘Why do you allow her to behave like that? It’s most dreadful to hear.’
‘You’re the dreadful one!’ she roared. When I was a child, I was slapped for such an action.
parenting has gone soft. Whatever happened to those Victorian-style grannies who used to look after children properly?
BARRY CARROLL, London SE18.