![]() The mind boggles at the thought of these lost billions, which the stressed taxpayer will have to fund.įrom the figures, we can see that approximately £5.9 billion went on consultancy fees (2,239 people at £1,100 per day for a year) £7 billion on 600 contracts with more than 200 organisations £372 million on agency and contractor staff £52 million on permanent and seconded staff and £3.1 billion for laboratory capacity. ![]() SIR – We at last have some insight into the monstrous £37 billion cost of the failed Test and Trace system ( report, October 27). SIR – You state that the price of a pint of Stella Artois is £3.80 ( report, October 28).Īpart from in Wetherspoons, you would be hard-pushed to find a pint for less than £4.50 in Surrey. This is due to return to 20 per cent next April, adding just over 3p to the average price of a pint (and more in London where prices are higher), cancelling out any savings the Budget might have enabled. In addition, the retail price of beer currently benefits from the temporary reduction of VAT to 12.5 per cent. SIR – The much vaunted reduction in draught beer duty is not all it seems.įirst, since it applies only to barrels with a volume of over 40 litres, a lot of small breweries – which supply their beer in 20-litre or 30-litre barrels – will not benefit. People don’t drink wine primarily for the alcohol it is variety of taste that matters. It is absurd to let prosecco (11 per cent) off lightly and punish rioja (13.5 per cent): they are simply different styles. Wine is a natural product, whether a moselle (7.5 per cent) or a zinfandel from California (15 per cent), and the alcohol comes from differing sugar levels. ![]() ![]() SIR – How very unintelligent is the revised taxation of wine on the basis of alcohol content. Having spent much of my working life flying in and out of European and other airports, I can tell him that most people will probably pay the extra tax to save themselves the trouble. SIR – Lord Blunkett ( Letters, October 28) suggests that the tax changes to flights will encourage long-haul travellers to break their journey at a Continental airport. SIR – I am sure that most Conservative voters want the Government to keep taxes as low as possible – but not at the expense of good public services, the levelling-up agenda, infrastructure, education and training, housing construction and, of course, proper care for the sick and elderly. The icing on the cake will be if the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee implements inflationary interest-rate rises. Pumping seemingly infinite monies into a Covid-stressed economy to chase finite goods and services can only result in rapid inflation. SIR – As a businessman and economist of 40 years’ standing, I’m speechless at the Treasury’s ineptitude. Who does a traditional Tory supporter vote for now? It seems that, since Britain caught Covid, we have lived in a parallel universe with the Labour Party running the country. I’m therefore frustrated by the approach that Mr Johnson and Rishi Sunak have taken, as demonstrated by Wednesday’s Budget. ![]() As a free-market capitalist, I was looking forward to small government. SIR – I was chuffed when Boris Johnson won a decent majority in 2019. ![]()
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