Letters: Time to abolish unfair inheritance tax and demonstrate that Global Britain means business

SIR – Let us call inheritance tax what it is: the Government confiscating an individual’s assets, on which taxes have already been paid (“Scrap unfair inheritance tax, MPs tell Sunak”, report, June 1).

Many developed countries no longer allow such government confiscation. It is long past time for Global Britain to demonstrate that it is open, outward-looking and confident on the world stage by following suit.

D M Jones
Scissett, West Yorkshire

SIR – Why should people like my husband and me, who worked hard to make some money, have to give so much of it to the Government instead of our children and grandchildren?

Moreover, having seen family and friends go through the agony of probate when suffering from grief, this seems to be an inhuman double tax.

Drusilla Austin
Petworth, West Sussex

SIR – I’m sure there are tens of thousands of oldies like myself who are determined to stay alive until inheritance tax is abolished.

I’ve lived frugally all my life and spent a hard-earned salary on property, so I want my only daughter to benefit – not some profligate government department. Having brought her up in very difficult circumstances, I feel I owe it to her.

Angela Lawrence
Woodbridge, Suffolk

SIR – Scrapping inheritance tax is not a liberal act. Far from enabling the creative destruction of one family’s wealth trickling down into the wider market’s pot, it softens the next generation’s inclination to roll up its sleeves, capitalise on the privileges their relatively higher wealth has already afforded them, and make their own way in the worl. Markets are meritocracies, not inheritocracies.

Dr A J Hesketh
Scorton, Lancashire

SIR – The main reason for abolishing inheritance tax is, counterintuitively, to tax the rich. Footballers and bankers have to live in England and so pay income tax here. The really rich business owners are largely resident in Switzerland, Portugal and such places. My research shows that, but for inheritance tax, they would return to England and happily pay income tax on their worldwide incomes.

It would be like 1979, when Margaret Thatcher abolished exchange control. Money flowed into this country.

Sir David Roche
London W2

SIR – While I consider inheritance tax an abomination that should be stopped immediately, I can’t help thinking that levying it at a more reasonable rate than the current, frankly outrageous, 40 per cent might be a solution that is more palatable to the Government.

If the tax was set at, say, 10 per cent, fewer people would go to extreme and expensive lengths to avoid it.

Chris Townend
Felpham, West Sussex

SIR – Scrapping, even reducing, inheritance tax is the wrong priority. The average age of beneficiaries would be 60 or above, and they are overwhelmingly likely to be affluent.

The weight of taxation in this country is disproportionately on work and working-aged people. They should be the priority for any tax cuts – especially those on the lowest incomes. Conservatism is at its best when it first and foremost supports those striving to achieve the good life, rather than those who already have it.

Ryan Shorthouse
London EC4

SIR – I am 82 years of age and have voted for the Conservatives all my life, but in view of the total shambles this country is in at the moment, I had determined never to vote for them again. However, if they are seriously thinking about scrapping the iniquitous inheritance tax, it would make a significant dent in my resolve.

David Brown
Lavenham, Suffolk

Victorian vision

SIR – The continued identification by various water utility leaders and spokespeople of the “Victorian” roots of the current crises in the British water network does an immense disservice to a forward-thinking generation, which, without access to modern computational algorithms, AI or communications, laid a solid base.

The current crop of legislators, administrators and industrialists have been unable to take this visionary Victorian attitude forwards, and build a water and sanitation infrastructure fit for use in the current century.

Peter Herring
Ashford, Middlesex

Shakespeare’s identity

SIR – I have no qualifications in the field of literature but my life has been enriched by what are commonly known as the works of William Shakespeare (Letters, June 1). This compendium exists and is a source of joy to millions, so why do academics obsess about the authorship?

It doesn’t matter if the quill was in the hand of the Earl of Oxford or the Elizabethan version of a literary focus group. It exists and requires an identity, which it has, and which cannot be changed. If the writer were John Smith of Colchester, who would care?

Huw Baumgartner
Bridell, Pembrokeshire

SIR – Responding to my review of her book (Arts, May 28), Elizabeth Winkler (Letters, June 1) suggests that the gondolas mentioned in Shakespeare’s plays are evidence of knowledge of Venice’s canals, but Shakespeare never associated gondolas with canals.

In As You Like It, he placed one in the Forest of Arden (on the Avon at Stratford, perhaps?), and in The Merchant of Venice it is the vessel in which Jessica and Lorenzo flee to Belmont.

Professor Jonathan Bate
Scottsdale, Arizona, United States

Paxman vobiscum

SIR – How refreshing it was to watch Jeremy Paxman’s departure after 29 years as the host of University Challenge. There were none of the usual tears you get with today’s celebrities – no self-indulgent presentation or “how I will miss my viewers” – just a simple “I’ll be watching it with you”.

Few people impress one anymore, but he does.

Gordon Black
Chalford Hill, Gloucestershire

Gender debate

SIR – I was at the interview with Professor Kathleen Stock at the Oxford Union on Tuesday (report, May 31). As much as the clarion calls for censure and censorship were audible, even inside the chamber itself – suggestive, however sadly, of the popularity of absolute dismissal in place of debate – the positive reception of the audience to the principles of open discourse was profoundly refreshing.

It is noteworthy that the ovation Professor Stock received at the end of the discussion was even more vigorous than that with which she was initially met. Let that, perhaps, be an emblem of the power of speech when it is permitted. Let it, by extension, testify to the unparalleled importance of the liberal values that are evidently under such grievous threat in our most influential institutions.

Nathan Buchan
Brasenose College, Oxford

SIR – In 2011, 10 years into our marriage, I faced the realisation that my husband had spent most of his life suffering from gender dysphoria. Aged 63, he had secretly started to live as a woman while abroad. He finally admitted this to me, and also that he had started hormone treatment. This culminated in me driving him 248 miles to Brighton for his full gender-reassignment operation.

I wonder whether any of those youngsters protesting at the Oxford Union over the gender debate with Professor Kathleen Stock will ever personally experience this, or have to lie to a spouse concerning their gender or biological sex.

Honesty is always the best policy. The lack of the truth shared during our marriage was what really broke it – not his confusion of gender or his biological sex.

Florence Shellstone
Bristol

SIR – The interview of Kathleen Stock by Ed Balls on Good Morning Britain (Comment, May 31) was a typical example of an over-bearing and patronising male interviewer constantly interrupting and talking over a mild-mannered, much more intelligent female.

It was most unedifying.

Victoria Bremner
Bristol

Pothole notice

SIR – I saw this notice on the back of a car in Devon: I’m not drunk – just avoiding potholes (Letters, May 31).

Donald King
Kennerleigh, Devon

A friendly, indoor breed that’s the cat’s whiskers

SIR – I feel heartbroken for Michael Deacon’s son (“Is it cruel to deny your children a pet?”, Features, May 4), as I also love cats and have had them all my life. I used to breed Birman kittens and still have a Birman as a pet. They are a relaxed, laid-back breed, very good with children and love people in general.

I live close to a country road, where rescue people will not re-home cats because they tend to get run over. However, my cats – and Birmans in general – are content to stay indoors. Perhaps an indoor cat is the answer.

Gillian McLean
Spilsby, Lincolnshire

SIR – Could somebody please invent a microchip for cats that includes a tracker? One of mine has just returned from a six-day safari. She did this before, many years ago, and – despite my exhaustive efforts to find her – returned of her own accord six weeks later, none the worse for wear, just a bit thinner.

She is a rescue cat, so wary of strangers, but very intelligent and independent. She won’t wear a collar, so one with a tracker would not help.

It is very wearing, both physically and emotionally, when a much-loved pet goes missing, and a tracker device would save a great deal of heartache for many people. Surely the technology is there now.

Rosemary Marshall
New Malden, Surrey

The kindness of strangers is always welcome

SIR – I am 86 and still enjoy walks, sometimes assisted by a frame that has a seat-cum-shopping-holder. When in need of a rest, I stop and sit. Often, someone will ask if I need help  (Letters, May 31) – I do not, but am grateful for their concern.

Gloria Green
Worcester Park, Surrey

SIR – One wet and windy evening, I stopped my car outside a local store. With the door on the driver’s side ajar, I opened the back – only for most of my work papers to blow out. As I scrambled to catch them, a lady helped me. I looked up to thank my Good Samaritan. All I could say was: “Mary Peters!”

She smiled her famous smile and said: “I hope you’re sorted now and safe home.” What a wonderful example.

Ian Elliott
Belfast

SIR – I feel for Chris McLaughlin (Letters May 31). A man pulling a suitcase on wheels pushed past me in a crowded Waterloo Station. I landed flat on my face and no one came to my aid.

Margaret Scattergood
Knowle, Warwickshire

SIR – When my wife fell outside Battersea Power Station, she was instantly surrounded by people offering water, help and advice. They were Japanese tourists.

John Godfrey
Hitchin, Hertfordshire

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