IF ever anything illustrated the depth of the Tory government’s ignorance of the lives of ordinary people it was Thursday morning’s interview with Chancellor Rishi Sunak. It was patently obvious that he had no conception at all of the lives that many thousands, perhaps even a few million, in this country have to endure.

No answers to questions, but all his talk was of the great schemes he and his wealthy colleagues are putting in place to help the unemployed back into work. Of course many will be able to benefit from retraining programmes etc, but why does no interviewer ever ask, for example, what those who are waiting to go on such a scheme are going to feed their family today, tomorrow and the next day until they actually start on the scheme?

READ MORE: FACT CHECK: Rishi Sunak claim that poverty has reduced under Tory government

He has obviously no concept of the state of having NO MONEY, not a penny. I can remember my mother crying because she could not feed us AND pay the rent, and for years she was in fear of being made homeless, no matter how hard she worked. When someone looks in the fridge and it is empty, and there are two slices of bread left for three children, with nothing to put on them, will the prospect of being accepted on a training scheme in a few weeks’ time put food in their mouths even for the next few days? Even begging for an emergency loan could take that long.

So many folk have already fallen through the cracks and been given nothing while being unemployed. A highly skilled, self-employed tradesman I know – normally with as much work as he can cope with, who pays every penny of tax he owes – got nothing, due to one of the government rules that made him ineligible.

I would like to ask Rishi Sunak to come to Glasgow, with nothing but the clothes he stands up in and the cash in his pocket, and spend a month in a nice damp, minimally furnished single-end, while he waits for a Universal Credit payment. It might introduce him not just to real poverty, but to the need for those values so foreign to this government – understanding, sympathy and empathy.

Or perhaps, for a start, three-jobs D Ross could take that place. Aye, right!

L McGregor
Falkirk

THE Tory Work and Pensions Secretary Therese Coffey has confirmed that the Tories intend to cut Universal Credit by £20 per week.

Like Mr Scrooge, Coffey will be writing to all six million claimants telling them the Tories have deemed they are getting too much money. Boris Johnson wants to put the Union flag on all Westminster projects. He can start with these letters.

The propaganda is that this measly amount to those with the least is “unaffordable”. This from the Tories who have given billions of pounds to their cronies for no-bid Covid-19 contracts that either were wholly inadequate or failed to deliver anything of value.

READ MORE: DWP to write to millions to confirm cut to £20 Universal Credit uplift

The Tories are preparing for a new round of austerity under the guise of “sorting out” the public finances. However, as proponents of Modern Monetary Theory have correctly pointed out, as the UK has a sovereign currency (Sterling) deficits and debt don’t matter as the UK is borrowing from itself.

The Tories like to confuse people by getting them to think of the national budget like a household budget. This is wrong. Since 2008 the Bank of England has pumped hundreds of billions of pounds into the financial system to keep the banks afloat.

Austerity therefore is a choice, not a necessity.

The cuts to Universal Credit are so unconscionable that even Tory hatchet man Ian Duncan Smith has condemned them. IDS was the ideologue who under David Cameron came up with the idea of a reign of terror on the sick and disabled and laughably called it welfare “reform”.

IDS was so deluded he compared it to the abolition of slavery and himself to Wilberforce. The fact that someone as without scruple or conscience a him can’t support this measure shows the depth of depravity of the Tories.

Alan Hinnrichs
Dundee

APPARENTLY the SNP spring conference is to be held in September this year. I’m struggling to remember when I was last at a conference or any kind of SNP meeting; obviously the present pandemic prevented such gatherings.

However, we are now seeing capacity spectators at Wimbledon in an indoor arena, when the roof is closed, and more than 60,000 football fans were allowed to attend the Euro final at Wembley.

So, why is our conference being held online just when we should be pushing for indy2 next year as set out in Lesley Riddoch’s article in last Thursday’s National?

We must get together again to give the independence movement the shot in the arm needed to start the campaign for our independent future and to rid ourselves of Westminster control over our nation. Let’s do it!

Angus Ferguson
Glasgow