Letters: I'm terrified Labour will be as unfair as the Tories on disability benefits

Big Issue readers react to the possibility of a Labour government, how Timpsons continue to be a corporation of kindness, and the dire consequences for African nations of lithium mining to fuel our electric cars and gadgets.

Labour pains 

I have a lot of sympathy with all politicians trying to tackle the Gordian knot of balancing humane social policies with sensible management of public funds.  

But as I have bipolar, osteoarthritis, hypertension, hypothyroidism and type 2 diabetes, I also have a dog in this particular race. I’m just about to tackle my PIP review form: the 24-page epic that will decide whether I can afford to have any kind of quality of life.  

I get the highest rates of both PIP components, severe disability premium, ESA, housing benefit, council tax benefit. My rent is high because I live in a supported independent living building. The cost to the public purse is eye-watering; my rent is £180pw; I get £1,650 per month in benefits.  

I cannot express how grateful I am for this generosity. I’m able to feed myself well, put the heating on without worrying, put money away for emergencies. But the main emergency I have in mind is the possibility of having my benefits taken away by a change in government policy.  

It is commonplace to blame and accuse the Tories for placing unfair conditions on disability benefits. But I’m equally terrified that an incoming Labour government will give us just as short shrift. They will be trying their hardest not to frighten the middle-class horses. They’ll equally be trying not to rouse the sleeping dog of working-class indignation (not that they’ve shown any real understanding or empathy to the working class in recent years).  

The next government will still have to tackle that £69bn welfare bill. I hope and trust you will keep up the good work holding Labour to account.  

Christine Pryce, Oswestry

• Will Keir Starmer lead Labour back into government? The view from the party conference in Liverpool
• What Keir Starmer can learn from Britain’s first Labour government – 100 years ago

Tory targets 

The UK Conservative government are deliberately targeting minority groups to deflect from their own catastrophic failures in the last 14 years of their term. In 2010 the UK debt stood at an eye-watering £1,210 billion. It’s now standing at £2,659bn and will most likely continue to grow; £12bn was wasted on PPE that was not only unfit for purpose but was inflated in price.  

They’re targeting unpaid carers who save them millions each year. The government say these people aren’t working but they are. They labour 24 hours a day, seven days a week, making sure their loved ones are looked after, and then they are demonised for it. 

They’re targeting disabled people, people with mental health disorders, single parents and none of these people can defend themselves. I am in all three of these categories. The Conservative party has had 14 years to solve these issues and yet they still haven’t.  

Name withheld 

Key figure 

Your article on the continued survival and ethos of the Timpson brand reminded me of an encounter years ago when visiting Birmingham and had to get a key cut. I stopped someone who looked like a local and asked him if there was a locksmith nearby. The man was puzzled and said, “What’s a locksmith?” I described what I wanted, whereupon he replied, “Oh, you mean a Timpson’s”. 

Congratulations to the Timpson family for dominating the market using the milk of human kindness, and changing a word in the English language thereby.  

Romilly Fraser, Crowborough 

Big Issue is demanding an end to poverty this general election. Will you sign our open letter to party leaders?

History must not repeat 

Once again, I’ve been wowed by another of the Big Issue’s special supplements. This time, Earth Day. While it included some inspiring news and enlightening studies, it was clear that we now live on borrowed time and have not learned from past mistakes. The report, ‘How the lithium rush in West Africa is harming rural life’ is the most dispiriting. Nearly 500 years ago marked the beginning of the transatlantic slave trade when western nations established outposts mainly on the west coast of Africa to facilitate the transportation of slave labour to the New World. These nations raided African communities and stole their most precious resource, human life, on an unprecedented scale. An estimated 12 million Africans were transported across the Atlantic over 400 years. 

Now, foreign companies are again removing vital resources from West Africa but this time it is minerals. Instead of slave ships, mechanical graders have come to countries such as Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Mali and Burkina Faso to mine rich geologic formations. The ‘golden nugget’ is lithium; a critical mineral for the electric batteries that power the developed world’s fossil-fuel-free vehicles. Over 400 years ago, sugar, tobacco and cotton blinkered civilised Europeans to the immoral practices of forced labour and slavery. Now, corporations are felling trees and furrowing through farms.  

Unfortunately, just like the African slave traders who co-operated with the Europeans, some African governments are today being enticed by the allure of quick financial gains. They are ignoring the impact of the high mechanisation of mineral extraction on their people’s everyday lives. If we want to use these minerals to improve the lives of everyone, we must not repeat history. 

Mike Hobbins, Woking 

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