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Don’t make us pay

If you do not pay your TV licence you could end up in prison.

This would appear to me to be a civil offence rather than criminal. But not to the powers that be – left-wing propaganda and inflated salaries at your expense even if you don’t watch it.

Now they are discussing the dropping of free licences to the over-75s.

How low can you get with that one.

To many people of that age on a fixed income the television is one of the few pleasures they have left in their lives.

May I suggest that they stop paying inflated salaries to the state-the-obvious so-called football pundits along with glorified disc jockeys.

Two who were named as receiving over a million pounds per annum for a few hours work a week. Cut down on all the waste from top to bottom at our expense.

Stop telling us that they must pay ridiculous salaries to some of their so-called stars to keep them.

How a mandatory tax on the public in this day and age with so many commercial channels earning their money in the real world of commerce is implemented on the British public.

It’s one more example of how out of touch with reality the liberal elite political classes are with the general public.

Another one being the disgraceful - and I don’t use that word lightly – parking charges in hospital car parks. A tax on the sick and distressed and friends and relatives visiting them. Any government with a shred of morality and fair play would abolish both at a stroke.

Bill Williams, Merlin Way, Covingham

‘Arrant nonsense’

It was only three months ago that Molly Scott-Cato MEP was urging your readers to consider the inevitable demise of Honda’s manufacturing plant in Swindon if the UK and the EU cannot agree a Brexit deal. What arrant nonsense she spouted, as has been confirmed by Honda’s announcement that they are here to stay. Coming hard on the heels of a similar announcement from BMW and the wonderful news that Toyota has committed to spend tens of millions in the North East, it appears that the ‘doom and gloom’ merchants will have to think of some other apocalyptic scenario.

Jaguar Land Rover bosses have tried to use Brexit as a ploy to disguise their decision to transfer production of the Discovery to Slovakia – they let the cat out of the bag when they announced that moving to Slovakia now (not waiting for Brexit) means they can make their cars for thousands of pounds less which produces higher profits but not lower showroom prices. The CEO also had to admit that the government’s attitude towards diesel engines has had a catastrophic effect on sales of the new XE model and this has led to the imposition of short time working.

Des Morgan, Caraway Drive, Swindon

We need more cash

Theresa May has set aside two billion pounds to build council houses in 2020.

This would be enough to build 10,000 council houses. To clear the current backlog of houses required in Britain would take a trillion pounds.

Two billion pounds is a vast amount of money, but when it comes to building houses it is a tiny amount and would make absolutely zero difference to the overall housing shortage in Britain.

Steve Halden, Beaufort Green, Swindon