Letter to ND Gazette from Pam and Toby Ebert

Dear Editor

Messers Olsson and Hammond are quite right to point out how remote the 
Government is from ordinary people's problems.  The Tory-led coalition 
boasts about the economic recovery and how many jobs have been created 
but completely fails to acknowledge how hard life is for most people.  
Inflation is up but pay rates are static. Insecure zero hours contracts 
are more and more common.  Unemployment, especially for young people, is 
high; who can blame them for moving away from the South West for more 
opportunities?

Money is tight but the Government is throwing away cash on ridiculous 
schemes. The marriage tax allowance will cost £600 million but will 
hardly benefit those who get it (about £4 per week) and discriminates 
against everyone who isn't married.  The Help to Buy scheme subsidises 
mortgages up to £600,000, driving up house prices even more – wouldn't 
it be better just to allow councils to build more social housing?

This week two events show how inept and out-of-touch the government is. 
First the Royal Mail, a successful and profitable company, is sold off 
on the cheap.  A few hours later, the energy company SSE inceases its 
prices by 8%.  No doubt the other energy companies will join in on the 
eye-watering round of price hikes.  Where will this all end?  We can't 
keep paying an extra 8% per year when our pay is going up by 1%.  This 
is especially galling when you remember that the energy companies make 
large profits, are mainly foreign owned and pay almost no corporation 
tax.

Labour are determined to do something about the cost of living crisis, 
and energy prices in particular, but the governing parties, the Lib Dems 
and Conservatives, have completely lost sight of how most of us live.

Regards, Pam and Toby Ebert