Readers' letters - July 6

There's many reasons for the many to appreciate the few

So, Jeremy Corbyn has been invoking the words of Shelley – “Ye are many –they are few!” By doing this, he is, through hard-left populism of the worst order, creating resentment towards those who achieve success in life.

Don’t forget that Corbyn has never had a proper job in his life. He started out as a representative for trade unions before becoming an MP in 1983. He is unfit to criticise anyone who is a success in life.

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Regarding ‘many and few’ quotes, I prefer the words of Churchill, from his famous speech celebrating the bravery of the RAF during the Battle of Britain: “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”

The many owe a lot to the few.

Firstly, ‘the many’ do not pay much tax. The Government is very reliant on richer people for its funding. About 90 per cent of income tax is paid by the 50 per cent of taxpayers with the highest incomes, while more than a quarter is paid by the richest one per cent. If ‘the few’ are demonised, then they won’t bother creating and managing the businesses that create work for ‘the many’.

If Corbyn had his way we’d end up with a workforce comprised only of public sector workers. If we relied on the ‘the many’ to take on the tax burden, we’d end up with a Somalia-sized economy.

It is often only the exclusivity of a goal that makes people work hard to achieve it. If everyone can do something, it becomes much less attractive.

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People are competitive, ambitious and seek to do better than other people. It is a major driving force in life. We, therefore, often end up with small numbers of people doing extremely well – I’m afraid it’s the way of the world.

However, these successful people contribute a huge amount to society. They inspire people to do things. People are not equal and never will be and can’t be made to be equal. People are individuals with different skills and different abilities.

Tim Hunter

via email

Opinion above knowledge

According to Plato, a problem with democracy is that it elevates opinion above knowledge. Rarely has the truth of that statement been more evident than in last year’s referendum.

A YouGov poll found that among voters who were graduates, there was a 40 per cent lead for Remain while, amongst those who finished their formal education at 15 or 16 years old, there was a similar 40 per cent lead for Brexit.

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Since the latter outnumber the former, we are now halfway down a slope to national self-harm.

To quote Mark Twain: “It is easier to fool the people than to persuade them that they have been fooled”.

Evidence is now accumulating rapidly that Brexit is going to be a disaster but too many (but not all) who voted to leave are simply closing their minds to the emerging reality because that would be to admit that they had been lied to, and they had bought the lie. Minds open to emerging evidence, self-honesty and a willingness to reassess might save us from completing the rupture with the remaining 27 nations of the EU.

John Cole

Address supplied

Transport gets forgotten about

Transport forms a major part in most of our lives.

Yet rarely does it assume a prominent role in our politicians’ thinking.

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So we simply let the amount of traffic on the roads grow, without thinking of alternatives and how to make them better. No, I haven’t forgotten HS2, but that seems to be the aircraft carrier option which does little to deal with the problems of either parking or stop-start buses.

Perhaps there needs to be more input from the grassroots level, with the powers-that-be getting out of their chauffeur-driven cars to see what things are like

for us humble citizens.

Tim Mickleburgh

via email

MPs should have had pay cap too

If public sector workers had to have a pay cap, it should have also applied to the MPs and even the top people in the police and other organisations, not just the rank and file workers.

Alan Ossitt via email