Letters: A living wage up to scratch January 20, 2022 [Re: Inflation accelerates to 30-year high, yesterday] With this sharp rise of inflation, it’s even more concerning that wages are not matching the accelerating cost of living. Every worker deserves a living wage – to earn enough to support their family and meet their basic needs. A living wage is critical for supporting decent work [...]
Letters: Calling time on China’s influence January 19, 2022 [Re: MI5 outs alleged Chinese spy funding UK MPs, Jan 14] What this shows is the authoritarian Chinese regime’s arrogance. After occupying Tibet, Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia for decades, China has now become emboldened to crush the people of Hong Kong because they see there is nothing much the UK and other countries can do. [...]
Letters: Bye bye to gas? No, it’s too soon January 17, 2022 [Re: IIGCC calling for exclusion of gas from EU Taxonomy, January 12] Last week, the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC) published an open letter to EU Member State representatives calling for gas to be excluded from the EU Taxonomy – a framework used by investors to assess alignment of their portfolios and investments [...]
Letters: Time to learn you E-S-Gs January 14, 2022 [Re: Terry Smith has a point – and the rest of the City should listen too, yesterday] Andy Silvester wrote how Terry Smith, one of Unilever’s top shareholders, “has a point” when saying the company has “lost the plot” with its focus on sustainability. Mr Smith told Fundsmith investors this week that Unilever has become [...]
Letters: Heigh ho, off to work we go January 13, 2022 [Re: Central London continues to feel hit of plan B measures, January 11]We’ve seen footfall in Central London dropping again as plan B measures keep many office workers at home. In December, office occupancy reached 10 per cent, a new low for London. This can’t go on. We must return to the office en masse, [...]
Letters: PM’s short-sightedness on visas for Indians January 10, 2022 [Re: PM announcing no easing of immigration rules for Indians, January 5] As an Indian migrant it was dismaying to hear the PM explain last week that the UK will not offer visa concessions to India in exchange for a free trade deal. Mr Johnson is being short-sighted. This knee-jerk capitulation to some of his [...]
Letters: Get down the pub to save our community hubs January 7, 2022 [Re: Flood of Omicron cases and plan B curbs combine to deliver heavy blow to UK economy, January 6] The hospitality industry has been given the green light to remain open, but the impact of December trade losses has been utterly devastating and somewhat irreversible. Due to Omicron sweeping across the country, many businesses took [...]
Letters: UK’s valued food industry risks losing its sweetness thanks to virus isolation rules January 6, 2022 [Re: Bosses call for Covid isolation period to be cut as health agency warns this could be ‘counterproductive’, January 4] It is clear that Omicron is less severe than previous Covid-19 variants. While incredibly welcome that doomsday predictions of 3000 daily deaths this January have proven unfounded, government policy enforcing seven-day isolation is putting the [...]
Letters: A lockdown in plain sight December 17, 2021 [Re: Precaution is a useful thing, but policy can’t be based on maybes, yesterday] Paul Ormerod’s piece yesterday was a welcome intervention into the hysteria that has broken out since the emergence of the Omicron variant. South Africa, the birthplace of the new strain, has stayed at the lowest level of possible restrictions. Yet the [...]
Letters: The longevity of giving back December 14, 2021 [Re: ‘Perfect storm’ hits charities as close to 5m Brits have stopped donating since start of the pandemic, Dec 6] With reports that nearly five million Brits have stopped donating since the start of the pandemic, this has undoubtedly been a difficult period for UK charities. And while it’s important to recognise these challenges, there [...]