IN telling us that households “need to accept” they’re poorer (The National, April 26), Bank of England chief economist Huw Pill is actually revealing two things – it’s the wealthy being protected at the expense of the rest of us and without fairer economic management of an independent Scotland, there is no prospect those currently administering the economy are either able or willing to do so in all of our interests.

First, Pill is stating clearly that the free-enterprise, capitalist economic system he is supposed to be managing on our behalf is both not working and that he and his colleagues are powerless and unwilling to manage it effectively in all our interests.

Second, given the reality, the system cannot in any way be realistically operated without the fettering of regulation, doesn’t his intervention confirm to us the imperative of Scotland becoming independent to properly administer it as best as possible in the interests of all citizens, and not just the vested interested wealthy at the expense of those at the foot of the economic ladder now being told it is they who have to “suck it up and bear” the financial burden?

READ MORE: Expert rips apart Bank of England economist's 'accept being poorer' claim

The upshot of Pill’s intervention is he expects workers in both the private and particularly the public sector to accept lower living standards. The real objective of the Tories’ 13 years of austerity which has seen profits maintained with wages suppressed to finance them is to see living standards dramatically reduced. Isn’t the reason why public support for our striking public services remains high is that we’ve seen through the flimsy veil surrounding the Tory government’s unacceptable plans to impoverish us?

Shouldn’t Pill and his colleagues understand our living standards reducing is not acceptable? We also can’t and won’t accept the current inflation level because we know that a lower inflation rate next year will do nothing to rectify the drop in living standards caused by this year’s rate. It’s a living standards deficit that needs to be recovered and the profit-takers who’ve benefitted from it who will need to pay for it.

Most people surely now believe that the energy price hiking has been a carefully orchestrated economic scam. Just as with the £400 billion squandered by this Tory government without proper accountability during the pandemic, their handling of the energy price “crisis” is little more than a scam with taxpayers’ money being delivered directly to the profits of the energy companies ripping us off.

If the Government was serious about dealing with inflation, shouldn’t the first port of call be to rein back not only the unit price of energy to the consumer, but also to completely reform the pricing structure that severely impacts the poor and low-users of fuel through inordinate fixed charges and the high price of pre-paid metering?

The Bank of England is being allowed to mismanage the economy while having the temerity to tell us to “suck it up”. Ofgem has proved itself inadequate and incompetent in overseeing the energy market. Ofwat is failing to stop pollution of water courses. Ofsted is woefully failing our education sector. The Home Office is reneging on every tenet of human rights dignity. There isn’t a single sector of this government’s control that isn’t failing dramatically, yet we are allowing it to linger on, exponentially increasing daily the damage it is doing.

Shouldn’t we leave the English to wallow in their own incompetence and inequality they seem to think is acceptable? Isn’t it time the other so-called “partners” in this Union, Scotland in particular, took heed of Huw Pill’s intervention, realised Westminster has no intention of ever governing in our interests and cut ourselves adrift from the rudderless, drifting rotten hulk of lost empire HMS England that is holding us back from building the kind of ambitious nation and society we desire and deserve?

Jim Taylor

Edinburgh

THIS morning I received an offensive email from a group calling itself “ScotlandMatters”. Because I don’t subscribe to any social media, this is the first time I have ever received offensive material. They describe the SNP and Greens as “duds, rookies and has-beens”. So it seems to me that they really don’t have any regard for either Scotland or the environment. Neither, it seems, do they have any respect for those who disagree with them.

If we as readers of The National have any regard for the future of Scotland, we should redouble our support of the SNP, the Scottish Greens, and even Alba. The disgusting words used by this horrific group are a clear indication of what is wrong with politics. With luck, both the Tories and Labour are finished.

The sooner we ditch the monarchy and the Lords and the honours system they both engender, the better this place we live in will be. Independence is our only hope.

Tony Kime

Kelso

WATCHING the 6:30 BBC Scotland News on Tuesday night, I couldn’t help but feel absolutely disgusted at the amount of time and the numerous occasions their presenters hurled muddy innuendos about SNP party finances.

It just kept coming at the viewers and the BBC presenters couldn’t help themselves but show their outward joy while acting in this way.

Of course, I and others understand their motives. It’s all based on the old adage: “If you throw enough mud at a wall, some of it will stick.”

This is not professional journalism, it’s the BBC simply towing the Tory/Labour/LibDem Unionist party line of treating the Scots like second-class citizens by feeding them anything other than the truth. After all, the Unionists wouldn’t want these Scots to get above their station and be told their London masters were acting in an even worse way.

Jim Todd

Cumbernauld