More safe routes into the UK are needed for those seeking refuge

Firstly it is important to note that this year just in excess of 30,000 people have come to the UK via small boats.

This figure compares to statistics compiled by the United Nations which indicate that there are almost 118 million internally displaced people in the world today – through factors such as political violence, climate change and poverty.

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I think it might be time for Labour to develop some sensible and humane policies around immigration and asylum issues.

A good start would be to follow the advice of the Refugee Council and develop more safe routes for people to come to the UK and claim refugee or asylum-seeker status.

This sensible and compassionate approach would require investment in staff and resources to assess claims in a fair manner and within a reasonable timescale. This would a real alternative to the Tories’ spiteful Rwanda policy.

Arthur West
Irvine

AFTER any Budget, it often takes a number of days before the dust settles and the full implications become clear. The devil, as they say, is always in the detail.

The revelation from the Economic Secretary to the Treasury, Tulip Siddiq, that 60% of the impact of Brexit is yet to materialise is just one of these, with the Office for Budget Responsibility forecasting that the economy will shrink in the long run due to the UK leaving the EU.

It also noted that Britain’s imports and exports will end up 15% lower than they would have been had the UK stayed in the EU.

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Back in 2022, the Centre for European Reform compared the UK to similar economies and assessed that Brexit meant a loss of tax revenues of £40 billion. Last week the Chancellor increased tax by £40bn, the biggest rise in decades, impacting businesses that in many cases are already deeply affected by Brexit.

Earlier this year, a report commissioned by the Labour mayor of London, using Treasury analysis, concluded that the UK was already £140bn worse off due to Brexit and would be £311bn worse off over the next decade.

On top of that, the exit bill to leave the European Union is still costing taxpayers. The UK has so far paid £24bn to leave, with billions more still to pay to settle the UK’s obligations.

Brexit, it appears, is an issue that dare not speak its name, and yet the impact on our public finances of this profound act of economic self-harm significantly outweighs any other aspects of the Budget.

Alex Orr
Edinburgh

SO apparently Labour have stirred up a right hoo-ha over family farms. It’s about time someone did!

Make no mistake, family farms have been under threat and have vanished in numbers over the past 50 years and all due to the ridiculous preference of the NFUS for no capping of farm support, thereby allowing established farmers and estates to expand their farming businesses as opportunity arises at the expense of rural opportunity for new-generation farmers.

Rural communities need farmers but do not need massive tractors and farm machinery serving multiple farms rushing through their villages. Nor do those seeking a career in farming, if we stand back and think about it.

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It is the land which produces our food and the more families planting, growing and rearing to produce it, the healthier our rural communities shall be. Opportunity is key!

Ever-increasing scale will lead to downfall, as it does and has done in many industries. Where are the steel and shipbuilding industries which drew families from the countryside, leaving it to an ever-decreasing minority? Small family farms survive when families supplement income from work elsewhere when the love of rural living inspires such investment into the farm.

Lest we forget, countless families living in poverty and poor city housing have their roots in the countryside, and their return is denied as much today as back in the day when their ancestors were banished or simply left in search of opportunity. Such folk need serious opportunity, in no small way denied by the ever-decreasing minority monopolising farming opportunity.

Without a shadow of doubt, I believe the Labour Party have taken a significant long-overdue step in the right direction and our countryside, rural communities and the nation at large will be the ultimate beneficiaries.

Tom Gray
Braco

THE Scottish Socialist Party’s Richie Venton eviscerates Labour’s Cameron/Osborne-style Budget and outlines a radical socialist alternative (Defy Labour’s austerity with a people’s budget here in Scotland, Nov 5). Such an approach is much needed to reverse the right-wing economics we have suffered for decades and which Labour promise more of.

Workers have seen their real take-home wage decrease drastically in the years since Gordon Brown “saved the banks” at our expense and public services have been slaughtered to provide profits for the parasite class. Labour’s plan of pumping public money into private healthcare will continue this sham.

Sadly, however, there is zero chance of this weak-as-water SNP government adopting a single one of the necessary remedies.

An independent socialist Scotland is needed to advance our collective quality of life. Labour are keen on neither, while the SNP model of “independence” is anything but.

David Stevenson
Cambuslang