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Regarding your leading article “Badenoch should take plunge on pension triple lock” (Apr 5), the issue is not the cost of providing pensions to those who have contributed throughout their working lives. Rather, the problem lies in trying to fund these commitments solely from the present tax revenues, placing an increasing burden on a shrinking base of working-age contributors. A more sustainable approach would be to rethink the underlying model.
For example, the government could introduce a system akin to the US 401(k) plan, in which individuals build their own retirement savings within a framework supported and regulated by the state. Such a model would promote personal responsibility, reduce long-term pressure on public finances and better align contributions with benefits. Of course, any transition would need to be carefully managed to protect those already retired or close to retirement. However, continuing to rely on the present structure without reform risks storing up far greater fiscal challenges in the future.
Will Scott
Chichester
I believe that the vast majority of MPs are in politics to make the world a better place. No doubt they are faced every day with tales of hardship and despair from their constituents, so it is hardly surprising that they want to do their best for them, hence the revolt last year by Labour backbenchers over proposed welfare cuts. However, this ideology of unfettered largesse is unsustainable. Runaway welfare and NHS bills will inevitably lead to more government borrowing at ever-greater interest rates. We can no longer afford to indulge the idea of the triple lock or people receiving a bailout every time there is a crisis. A massive rethink is needed on compassionate governing. A new era of people having to do more but get less is the only solution.
Alistair Gibb
Edinburgh
It is disappointing that whenever people complain about the triple lock they never discuss the affordability of public sector defined benefit pension schemes. The total cost of paying pensions to retired public sector staff is at least £50 billion a year. And, of course, most retired public sector employees will also be entitled to a triple-locked state pension. It does not make sense to look at the triple lock in isolation from the cost of public sector defined benefit pensions, which are themselves unsustainable.
Mark Hepworth
Emsworth, Hants
The triple lock cannot be justified economically and is at odds with the commendable deferment of the pensionable age to 67. Reform UK has decided that it is politically expedient to support a policy that increases the size of the welfare state while favouring the old over the young. The old vote more, but there must be many who receive the state pension, like me, who would favour abandonment of the triple lock and vote for a politician brave enough to take that position.
Paul Ridley
Stoke-on-Trent
Regarding Tom Calver’s question “How long can Britain afford the state pension triple lock?” (Apr 5), when will politicians learn that while it’s easy to use taxpayers’ money to fund pensions and winter fuel payments in a ploy to buy votes, it is very difficult to take these things away when they become a burden on the state?
Neil Walmsley
Stockport, Greater Manchester
Big battery warning
Regarding your report on Coire Glas (“Hollowing out a mountain to build UK’s biggest battery”, Apr 5), pumped hydro energy storage is a well-established technology but is also well established as causing ecological harm. The scheme at Dinorwig, Wales, wiped out the local population of Arctic charr, for example, despite protests from ecologists and mitigation measures. Turbines chop up or compress aquatic wildlife on the ascent and descent phases. Such systems can cause depth, thermal and salinity shocks in both uphill and lower water bodies. They obstruct migration and kill fish spawn. Freshwater systems are already experiencing high extinction rates in Britain and globally, which is more of an urgent priority than unnecessary infrastructure.
Clive Hambler
Lecturer in biological and human sciences, University of Oxford
One of the first reverse pumped storage hydro systems in the world is at Ben Cruachan, above Loch Awe. It has a visitor centre where you can go inside the mountain to the turbine hall. My wife and I did just that on our honeymoon in July 1980.
Alan Connell
Harrogate, N Yorks
In your report about the Coire Glas pumped hydro power plant in the Scottish Highlands, I was disappointed that there was no reference to the pioneering scheme at Loch Ness, which was built more than 50 years ago. The site at Foyers was formerly the hydroelectric-powered aluminium smelter, which dated to 1895. My grandfather was manager of the Foyers smelter for many years, from the mid-1940s. It closed in 1967, with work on the pumped storage scheme completed in 1975.
Ian Fraser
Swindon
Flaunting your kink
I was shocked by Hadley Freeman’s article on Bryon Noem, the former US homeland security chief’s husband, who has been outed for wearing hotpants and stuffing balloons up his T-shirt (“The fetish for flaunting your kink? It’s a turn-off”, Apr 5). If you can’t trust “online fetish models” not to expose your kinks to the media nowadays, who can you trust?
Charles Harris
London NW3
Junior doctors’ strike
In 1948, Nye Bevan, the founder of the NHS, said that to get doctors into the service he had to “stuff their mouths with gold” (“It’s too bad Britain has a gift for misguided benevolence”, comment, Apr 5). Nothing has changed.
Paul Durkin
Faversham, Kent
Phone-free exhibitions
Free entry for under-16s to view the Bayeux Tapestry (news, Apr 5) recognises the importance of promoting our history to the next generation. It would be a further credit to the British Museum if it pioneered another experiment: entry times when photography is prohibited. This 21st-century habit is so ubiquitous it can ruin a visit for others, especially when the exhibits are detailed and need close inspection. Our view of the Vermeer exhibition in Amsterdam consisted mostly of the backs of mobile phones held above their owners’ heads. Sadly the act of taking a photo is replacing the act of looking properly.
Dr Hugh Savill
Tiverton, Devon
Investing in the young
Kemi Badenoch is right that “Britain isn’t broken” (comment, Apr 5) but it is not “big government” that is our undoing but lopsided government: successive administrations have retreated from their obligations to our young while shifting focus elsewhere. From employment training to mental health support, the charity sector has been called on to fill this void. Despite our laudable efforts, this is not a sustainable solution and instead our politicians and policymakers must focus on restoring the social contract through the creation of entry-level jobs and apprenticeships alongside affordable housing. Britain’s future is bright — but only if we can empower the youth of today.
Ryan McKiernan
Managing director, Fat Macy’s Foundation, London E1
Polanski’s pipe dream
In your report “Planet Polanski” (Apr 5), Zack Polanski is quoted as saying that if he were prime minister he would “seek to build a relationship with President Putin and urge him to give up nuclear weapons”. Dream on, baby. But then it is clearly not a question of what planet Polanski is on but rather what solar system he thinks he’s in.
Alan Brown
Camberley, Surrey
Royal Navy cut adrift
The situation Mark Urban describes (“Royal Navy once carried me through the strait. Now it’s so ‘miserably small’ it can’t get near it”, Apr 5) was not helped by Labour’s decision in 2009 to build two aircraft carriers to prop up support for the party in Scotland. War games have demonstrated that these resource-hungry carriers are undeployable against today’s hypersonic anti-ship missiles and undersea drones. It would have been better to use the budget to build a fleet of anti-missile frigates and destroyers to fulfil our Nato role of defending the North Sea and providing anti-missile defence and submarine protection for the UK and its undersea cables. A new shipbuilding programme would also give a massive boost to our Royal Navy officers, who yearn for a chance to command a vessel.
Geoff Cowling
HM Diplomatic Service 1966-2005; Alton, Hants
Grassroots Passion
Camilla Long wonders why church leaders were not in Trafalgar Square on Good Friday (“Bloody staging of Christ’s death puts another nail into a church on its knees”, April 5). The truth is that the vast majority of faith is practised at grassroots level. My own church was re-enacting the Easter story in a local park on Good Friday; numerous other passion plays were being performed in communities across the country. The reality of the church’s flourishing is to be found in the small print, not in the headlines.
The Rev Peter Crumpler
St Albans
Digging for victory
I wouldn’t mind my body being buried in an allotment rather than a cemetery. My remains might nurture a prize vegetable or two. Richmond council could then ditch its idea of expanding cemetery space at Teddington, southwest London, by taking over the 120-year-old allotment next door (“It’s looking grave for the allotments”, news, Apr 5).
Jenny Taylor
Stanmore, Middx
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