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Government also guilty

IN REFERENCE to ‘Shoplifter vows to return photos’ SA July 10 my heart goes out to the elderly victim who had her purse stolen which contained photographs of sentimental value.

I hope the thief will be as good as his word and return the priceless photographs, after causing her so much anguish at the age of 84.

No one, including myself, could ever condone such a despicable act, however there is in this case a third party in crime involved that is equally as guilty and should be appearing in the dock alongside the petty thief.

This is the current Government which has seen fit to introduce legislation which penalises people who find themselves having to rely upon benefits.

In this case the thief said he had committed two thefts of purses in order to buy food for his child, which appeared to be an act of sheer desperation as his lawyer said the family had been without benefits for seven weeks after being told that the move from the ESA benefit to Universal Credit was in progress.

There must be many other people who find themselves in a similar situation as it is nothing short of preposterous for a mandatory change from one benefit to another to take such a long time.

I only hope that the person without heart who brought about such legislation, namely Iain Duncan Smith, is proud of himself in causing so much angst among ordinary working families who are also struggling against the political choice of austerity.

After a prolonged period of Tory rule our country resembles scenes from Les Miserables, whereby not only are the poor and disabled suffering, they are having it compounded for them.

I, like many others, would like to see Iain Duncan Smith appear in the dock next to the defendant Mr Ambler as his crimes by and large exceed those of this desperate man, and the question needs to be asked as to how many other Mr Amblers there are out there who have turned to petty crime because they are victims of a raft of nasty punitive policies from the Conservative Party.

G A WOODWARD, Nelson Street, Swindon

Listen to businesses

JUSTIN Tomlinson’s comments in “Swindon business leader backs call to halt ‘cliff edge’ Brexit” (July 7) demonstrate exactly why organisations such as Business West are having to call on the Government to listen to them. Because he clearly wasn’t listening.

Business West, echoing the Confederation of British Industry, was not calling for a reversal of Brexit, merely for the Government to agree a transitional deal to remain in the single market and customs unions until a final deal can be done.

Yet Mr Tomlinson responded with the usual mantra about it being a vote to leave, alongside a pointless sideswipe at Business West.

If Mr Tomlinson, and indeed his Government were listening, they could begin to work with business leaders and organisations to understand the concerns and potential impacts and start to talk about ways to protect the very thing that the Conservative Party has always believed it represents so well: Business.

On the same day the article was published, news was released by the Office For National Statistics that manufacturing was down 0.2 per cent led by a big decline in car manufacturing, and the deficit had widened by £2bn, primarily due to imports from outside the EU.

In a town such as Swindon, where a large employer, a manufacturer, has expressed concern about the position the Government is negotiating for us, it is vital we understand what situation we could find ourselves in if we do end up approaching that cliff-edge in 18 months-time.

The time for sloganeering has long since passed; meaningful informed dialogue and detailed published plans are now needed to allow businesses to plan, invest and regain confidence.

MOLLY SCOTT CATO, Green MEP, South West European Parliament, Brussels

Tuition fees are not debt

IN THE General Election the Labour Party policy to abolish tuition fees played a huge part in swinging the student vote behind Jeremy Corbyn.

There was talk of students leaving university with huge debts, but tuition fees are not debts using the normal meaning of the word.

It is more accurately a graduate tax that is only paid by people earning over £21,000, and on that wage they only pay £2 pounds a week.

If the graduate never reaches £21,000 then the debt is simply written off after 30 years and never repaid.

The objective of the current system is to ensure that tuition fees are only repaid by those people who are very successful in their careers and get well paid jobs.

Scrapping tuition fees would mostly benefit the highest paid people in the country.

The changes proposed by the Labour Party would mean that working class people would be subsidising the education costs of some of the highest paid people in Britain.

STEVE HALDEN, Beaufort Green, Swindon

Hypocritical council

Before the last General Election, the candidate for Swindon south UKIP party arranged for several election posters to be put up around that part of the town.

They were put up, and then, before you could say election, they were taken down by the council, saying they were breaking this or that law.

As far as I am aware there was no consultation to see if a compromise could be arranged, they were just taken down.

Last Saturday morning, a black transit, with recovery markings on its side, went around the town and put up posters at most roundabouts etc, on the barriers, to advertise a fun fair on July 16.

I have been around today and they are still there, so is this an example of how the hypocrites world goes on, or does money talk when putting them up?

T REYNOLDS, Wheeler Avenue, Swindon