Letters: Reckoning with HMRC’s contempt for the people it is meant to serve
SIR – You report: “Jeremy Hunt orders HMRC to keep their phone lines open” (telegraph.co.uk, March 20).
I should think so.
I can’t believe that civil servants proposed that a public service, paid for by the public, should be unavailable to the public for six months of the year (report, March 20). It beggars belief.
Denese Molyneux
Sidmouth, Devon
SIR – Taxpayers increasingly have good reason to doubt that HMRC is fair and accurate. Its tax demands are often confusing, menacing or plain wrong.
Add to that third-party collection agencies giving very little detail of how they have reached a sum that you must pay immediately – and the first inclination is to try phoning HMRC to find out if the demand is genuine.
For those who can afford an accountant, there is less concern about the erratic and inconsistent way in which HMRC communicates with the public, but for the vulnerable and elderly it’s almost essential for their wellbeing that they can talk to someone directly.
HMRC’s proposal was yet another example of senior Civil Service bureaucrats treating the public with contempt and arrogance.
Simon Taylor
Poringland, Norfolk
SIR – Given the name – His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs – I would be very interested to know the King’s views on this appalling treatment of his loyal subjects.
My view is that there should be an immediate reorganisation of this obviously failing body, commencing with the removal of all existing top management and their replacement by those who understand the concept of public service.
Ian McNicholas
Ebbw Vale, Monmouthshire
SIR – We are constantly reminded of the importance of “inclusion” by the Government and the media. It seems to mean that people feel they are valued regardless of their background and identity.
Should not inclusion also be for those who are not up to date with technology, or just wish to speak to a person regarding utility matters, or to HMRC on the phone without waiting for ages only to be told to contact a website?
I know many people – young and old – who definitely don’t feel included.
Pat Edgecombe
Kingsbridge, Devon
SIR – Has the time not come for call centres to change their recorded message from “Sorry, due to a very high volume of calls we are unable to answer right now”, to “Sorry, but despite very healthy profits, we are absolutely not prepared to employ more staff to answer your calls – which are of course very important to us”?
Mark Lister
Windsor, Berkshire
Milking motorists
SIR – Mark Harper MP (“A fair deal for drivers”, Letters, March 20) wants to prevent excessive targeting of motorists by local councils.
The solution is very simple: all revenue beyond the cost of enforcement should be passed to the Treasury.
Easily and quickly implemented, this removes the financial incentive that encourages local councils to issue more and more penalty-charge notices without regard to the impact on traffic flow.
Such a change would also remove any perception that motorists are cash cows for councils – although we then need to ensure they don’t become cash cows for the Treasury.
Brian Barbour
Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland
SIR – Perhaps Mark Harper can explain why the DVLA sells motorists’ information to just about anyone who asks, including hundreds of car park operators.
This makes millions of motorists easy prey – and millions of pounds for the DVLA.
Michael Lowry
Fareham, Hampshire
SIR – Your article (March 19) about local councils’ war on motorists does not mention one of the main reasons why the rules regarding yellow boxes are frequently not observed – namely that many are so poorly maintained that they become virtually impossible to see from the driver’s seat.
Philip Goddard
London SE19
SIR – There would be no need for yellow box penalties if drivers didn’t behave in an inconsiderate way. It’s simple: don’t go into one until the exit is clear.
Of course, there will be occasions when something unexpected happens ahead to cause a stoppage, which should be taken into account.
Alan Murphy
East Cowton, North Yorkshire
Israel in Eurovision
SIR – I find it ironic that, as Michael Deacon explains (Way of the World, March 19), the Rio Cinema in Dalston will not be showing the Eurovision Song Contest because of the Israeli entry.
Dalston used to be a part of London with a large Jewish population, and would probably have shown films in Yiddish at some time.
How things have changed – not, it seems, for the better.
Sidney Sands
London N12
Tranquil tweets
SIR – What a shame that BBC Radio 4 is finding it necessary to reduce the Tweet of the Day broadcasts to once a week (report, March 19).
In this traumatic, troubled world in which we live, can we not have just a few minutes of tranquility at the start of each day?
Glen Peddar
Coxheath, Kent
Buns and crumbs
SIR – The best way of preparing hot cross buns (Letters, March 20) is to slice in two, toast but not burn, flip over and repeat.
Then spread and melt butter copiously on both slices, before eating separately while still nicely warm.
It is wise to have a damp cloth available to mop one’s chin and generally for crumbs.
Christopher Piggins
Salisbury, Wiltshire
Diversity folly
SIR – Pushing equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) is institutional virtue-signalling and economically ruinous (report, March 20).
It is a perpetual employment and litigation machine for bureaucrats, HR staff and lawyers. In the past 12 years, HR roles in Britain have increased 10-fold. This adds cost with no real economic or social benefit. It also applies and legitimises identity politics, an ideology that works at the cultural (not political) level through the propagation of critical race theory and gender ideology by our institutions, organisations and companies. Out of this ideology, huge mistakes, injustices and false narratives are spreading.
One simple measure that would increase our growth rate, improve our institutions and mend our social fabric would be to limit EDI. It is an ideological Trojan horse.
R D Young
Kingston, Surrey
SIR – Network Rail has been criticised after an Islamic hadith was displayed on the departure board at London King’s Cross as part of a diversity initiative (report, March 20).
I look forward to arriving at the station on Easter Sunday to a proclamation that “Christ is risen” – besides which the late running or cancellation of trains is a small matter.
Jane Moth
Stone, Staffordshire
Women at the Garrick
SIR – I am a member of the Garrick Club. My wife approves and she is a guest there on a regular basis.
There is a spirited debate going on as to whether we should admit lady members (report, March 20). I am not in favour. Many other members disagree with me, but so far we have not fallen out and are unlikely to do so.
I wonder why the rest of the world is so keen to resolve this matter for us. What has happened to the old principle of “live and let live”? Watch with interest by all means – but please let us resolve the matter in our own way and in our own good time.
Philip Shorrock
London SW11
Till death do us part
SIR – Kate Boydell (Letters, March 20) is quite right. A widow is a widow. If I told my wife that after my death she would merely be “separated”, I fear that her response might be, “Why wait?”
George Acheson
Fakenham, Norfolk
Misguided criticism that can spoil great art
SIR – How I agree with both Kath McArthur and Richard Cheeseman (Letters, March 18), who say that, while landscapes lack “nationalistic bias”, they can be important historical resources that document particular times and conditions.
Some time ago you kindly printed a letter I wrote in defence of Sir Stanley Spencer, when the Fitzwilliam Museum wished to hide one of his paintings on the grounds of racial stereotyping. Spencer was one of our finest and most technically accomplished landscape painters, who, like John Constable, celebrated his locality.
The French impressionists also recorded their own surroundings, and their works have given great pleasure to millions across the world for many years.
What is the Fitzwilliam’s issue? Why is it so intent on undermining and re-interpreting works of art that have long been enjoyed by many?
Like Mr Cheeseman, I have ancestors who toiled in fields, died in fishing accidents and even one who was blown up in a gunpowder mill.
But I love art for what it is; looking at great works is excellent for mental health and can transport one to a kinder, gentler place, and even give a a glimpse of paradise.
Isobel Greenshields
Billericay, Essex
SIR – I wonder whether the curators of the Fitzwilliam Museum’s latest exhibition have ever been to Goodwood House. There one is greeted in the entrance hall by three very large paintings by the British painter George Stubbs, with landscape views, and at least three portraits by the Flemish artist Anthony van Dyck. Treasures are spread throughout the public rooms.
Among these are a number of landscape paintings from the mid-18th century (about the time of the Battle of Culloden in 1746) by local artists called Smith. These are entitled “Romantic Landscapes”. To put it another way, 300 years ago artists were already airbrushing away the brutal realities of life in rural England. It was ever thus in artistic terms. In the days when most ordinary people’s horizons were limited to the parish or the nearest market town, “nationalism” – dark or light – did not feature in any meaningful way. Most were far more concerned with keeping a roof over their head and food on the table. If they did think in wider terms, people feared dealing with the difficult Scots and the very real threat of countrywide revolution.
It seems to me that the curators of the Fitzwilliam exhibition are trying to impose upon the lives of those from earlier times the prejudices of this modern age, for purposes one can only speculate on.
Martin Coakley
Liphook, Hampshire
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