For Elsie (Woman who rides bus to stay warm is tip of pensioner poverty iceberg, 3 May), insert my friend Mary, aged in her late 80s, living in a retirement flat without care provision. She is widowed. She struggles to manage financially and her mobility is very poor: walking is now difficult and using public transport is all but impossible.
She relies heavily on another friend for shopping and general help. A recent added problem is the closure of her local Lloyds bank – the nearest now being a lengthy bus journey away. She has no internet access, nor does she own a mobile phone. She is reliant on her bank, but parking in the area is difficult and Mary could not walk the distance, hence my involvement.
I too am old and suffer from osteoporosis and am registered disabled, but I can drive and am able to take Mary directly to the bank, park with my blue badge and all is well. There are many Marys in this country who do not have such friends to enable them to have some quality of life.
Perhaps our prime minister and his cabinet cronies should reflect on the definition of “quality of life” and give some help to the Marys and Elsies to ease their difficulties.
Jenny Lumley
London
• George Eustice advises Elsie, the 77-year-old woman provided as an example of the cost of living crisis by Susanna Reid, that as well as buying supermarket own-brand products she should “seek some support from the local authority” (Britons should buy value brands to cope with living cost crisis, says minister, 4 May). Would this be one of those same local authorities cut mercilessly by the Tories over the last decade or more?
It’s funny how Conservative policy is always to cut back on the state and promote private competition instead, until it dawns on them that the former might just be important. Yes, George, there’s a lot of competition to “keep those prices down”, but that competition is not compassionate, and not there to pick up the pieces when things go awry. That’s the role of the state ... it’s called government.
Dr Nick Pratt
Westcroft, Devon
• We are currently undergoing the worst cost of living crisis for more than 30 years and a substantial number of people are suffering because of it. At the same time, energy companies are making massive profits (BP profits double to $6.2bn, fuelling calls for energy windfall tax, 3 May).
We are told that energy prices are going up and that the cost of fuel has to rise as a result. This increased revenue seems to be going straight into the pockets of the shareholders of energy companies such as BP and Shell.
Apparently there is nothing anyone can do about the cost of living crisis other than help those who are most affected by it. Opposition parties propose that there should be a windfall tax on excessive profits to pay for this. Why can’t energy companies be forced to cut their prices to more affordable levels, which would still leave them plenty?
Gordon Glassford
Corby, Northamptonshire
• I was most relieved to read our prime minister’s remark, in response to the local election results, that he is going to “get us all through the economic aftershocks in the way we got through Covid”. As a disabled person living on benefits, I am now excitedly waiting for my first vaccination against poverty.
Carolyn Sutton
Glastonbury, Somerset
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