Letters: A two-tier society has never worked – even at the height of this nation's power

A reader outlines why a two-tier society is bad for everyone in the UK.

Two-tier? Not here

We have inflation, food banks and a rising epidemic of shop lifting, indicating that not much money is trickling down to the people. Inflation must be making life a misery for shoppers who have to budget their income. There are too many high-salaried people who live in a different world from the majority. Villages are being deserted and bank branches closing down.

This nation does need investing in, and not just by foreign companies. A two-tier society has never worked even at the height of this nation’s power.

TG Springthorpe, Southend on Sea

Kill bill

We’ve already seen Starmer give ground. He will give so much by the third reading [of the welfare bill] that it won’t be worth the paper it’s written on, or he will revoke it entirely. All we have to do is keep up the pressure.

Jack Powell, Facebook

Green screen

Greens would be better. However, all the media focus is on Reform and Farage which only gives them credibility and exposure they don’t deserve. It also puts them in the mind of voters as a party that can beat Labour and the Tories. In contrast, who are the Greens?

Adam Cleeve

Browned off

Feeling nostalgic for Gordon Brown – dour but decent – who continues to try to make a difference, in contrast to Blair.

Peggy McGregor

Two-tier tax

Why does the government refuse to tax wealthy, member-owned sports facilities and golf clubs? They pay no VAT. They are often difficult to join. They operate an unequal screening of prospective members. They are often extremely wealthy clubs with big cash reserves. It is easier for the government to slice funding from the vulnerable than fight clubs full of solicitors and barristers for tax avoidance.

Roger Helme, Leominster

The perfect Cure

Thank you for the interview with Charlotte Spencer. It inspired me to binge-watch The Gold this week. What an incredible piece of work. The series one ending, with the haunting “A Forest” by The Cure, inspired me to play the album Seventeen Seconds this morning at 5am, probably for the first time in 40 years. Now for series two. High-quality stuff with meaning, just like Big Issue.

Nigel Ellis, Aberystwyth

Readers respond to our Young Team Takeover special edition, Issue 1672

Congratulations to those who produced the youth takeover edition and thank you to the young people who shared their stories. What a fund of talent there is in our young people, which we should cherish and nurture.

Jill Andrews, Formby

Thanks to Alice, Chloe, Lexi, Jake, Tumukunde, JoJo, Raees, Riley and Tom for the Welcome to the Future issue. Brilliant job! I loved reading your views and interviews. Hope you all get lots more journalism coming your way  and lots of life opportunities. Thanks for sharing what’s important to you all. 

Alison Oakes

I’ve just finished reading the special edition and feel so hopeful. Labour MPs just voted for the welfare changes tonight but the future for young people will get harder if we don’t fund youth clubs, workers support schemes and better benefit payments for those who are vulnerable. 

I’m 72 and going to youth clubs in my teens, then working as a volunteer, then paid worker, helped me get a good career in housing where many great people helped encourage and support youngsters, who went on to develop their lives by helping others in a variety of ways. It’s called investing in the future, saves millions and helps prevent lost lives in the long term. Well done Young Team and Big Issue

Harry Woodward

Read more:

• Digital exclusion is creating a ‘two-tier’ system for people claiming benefits
• Will Labour’s ‘radical’ leasehold reforms lead to a ‘two-tier’ system for flat owners?

Re: Chloe Jones’s article on homeschooling

Well done, Chloe. I was a secondary headteacher up to 2016 and I could see the (sad) impact of Gove’s GCSE reforms, creating a more compliant and constricted curriculum. Since then it’s only got worse.

Robert Campbell-Roscoe, Facebook

No surprise if you make a place that is entirely routine and dull that it won’t suit a lot of kids. Good for Chloe taking matters into her own hands!

Chloe Newby, Facebook

Love this. Well done, Chloe! We had a similar experience. My daughter has just taken her GCSEs and will have passed them BECAUSE we decided to home school for the last six months. School made no effort to meet her needs and she would’ve failed them all if she’d stayed in that environment.

Clare Render, Facebook

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