TIM Mickleburgh (Yorkshire Post, May 8) asserts that inheritance tax is just about the fairest form of taxation because it is paid by a small proportion of the population. I would submit that inflicting an unjust tax on a minority does not make it fair. A tax that was introduced to milk the wealthy is now affecting an increasing number of families and in its present form is a blatant attack on the middle class.

This raises the question as to whether it is reasonable to allow a government to rob graves to pay for its programme. Dead people cannot fight back but it is surely questionable that government can expropriate part of an inheritance which was intended to benefit the children and dependents of the deceased. By any other standards, this would be regarded as a contemptible crime.

For a tax to be justifiable, its benefits must exceed its adverse effects.

It should be apparent to all by now that allowing politicians carte blanche to spend our money is probably the least efficient way of achieving any objective.

The money squandered by the present government in recent years has produced no discernible benefit for the citizens of our country apart from the tens of thousands of public employees recruited to help spend it.

I am convinced that the money raised by the Government in inheritance tax would be used more sensibly and for greater common good by the families from whom it has been taken.

The families who bear this imposition number among the most capable and successful people in our community, many of whom have demonstrated their ability to build and conserve wealth. By contrast, the primary concern of MPs who usurp this inheritance is to get elected. They do not have any incentive or ability to think of the
long term.

Private assets built up over a lifetime are part of the wealth of the nation and are too precious to be frittered away by governments. It is much more difficult to create wealth than
to spend it.

By complying with this tax, we have given our rulers licence to undermine the virtues of thrift and encourage the use of debt rather than savings to finance expectations. This strategy has weakened our banks, sapped our pensions industry and threatens
our stability.

Inheritance tax is loved by politicians because its cumulative effect is to reduce succeeding generations to State dependency, rather than empowering them to be independent. This form of taxation diminishes liberty as well as wealth.

Present policy encourages our most able citizens to emigrate if they wish to choose who should receive their assets when they die. Those of us who stay behind must accept our remains being picked over by Inland Revenue vultures.

If inheritance tax were abolished it would transform the prospects for Britain by signaling to people of ambition and achievement that we wish them to stay to help build our national wealth and contribute to the betterment of the nation. This transfusion of ability would generate the resources to create the education and health improvements we seek.


Airport is an embarrassment to the business community

From: Mike Lancaster, managing director, Conference Co-ordination, Skipton Road, Harrogate.

I ABSOLUTELY concur with the negative sentiments of recent Yorkshire Post correspondents relating to Leeds Bradford Airport. There are other many serious issues with LBA and undoubtedly this completely inadequate airport severely impacts on the region's economy.

The terminal buildings and facilities belong to another bygone age. They should have been demolished and replaced years ago. Previous regimes have left us with an embarrassing legacy and there is little demonstrable ambition on the part of
the current owners.

The airside catering is too dreadful for words and arriving passengers must negotiate a warren of stairs and passageways (last week the escalators were switched downwards when we all needed to go upstairs). The lack of "air bridges" means a soaking on wet days – the fact that operators cannot even provide a covered walkway to the door from where the coaches stop at arrivals just demonstrates the contempt they have for passengers.

The runway is too short for economic long-haul operations and the orientation of the runway leads to operational difficulties in certain adverse
weather conditions.

The operators have a miserly, opportunistic mindset – just look at the website front page. There is barely a mention of customer service. Instead, passengers are exhorted to cough up £5 for "fast-track" to avoid the "stress of security". It wouldn't occur to the operators to ensure all passengers have a speedy, stress-free transit through security.

It's a long time since the terrorist attack at Glasgow airport, yet there is no sign of any covered walkways from what appears to be a now permanent drop-off area. Car parking is a rip-off and covered multi-storey facilities are long overdue.

My independent company organises conferences for UK and overseas clients all over the world and I am proud to say that our home town of Harrogate is a venue to match the best, benefiting from substantial investment in conference facilities and refurbished hotels; all supported by a very competent team in the borough council. However, the downside is that potential international clients visiting the town gain an extremely unfavourable first impression at LBA and should they arrive by train, they experience a service with Northern Rail that is truly a third world standard.

Our region has needed a cohesive transport strategy for as long as I can remember. Realistically, the focus needs to switch to Doncaster, but who will take up the challenge? Yorkshire Forward appears not to be up for it, so please may we mobilise our MPs as a matter of urgency?

Leeds Bradford Airport remains truly a great cause of embarrassment to Yorkshire's business community and it is inhibiting our growth.


This is a government of capitalism, not care

From: Malcolm Naylor, Grange View, Otley.

AFTER 10 years of a Labour government, Gordon Brown announces a crisis in social care for the elderly and disabled (Yorkshire Post, May 12).

What a disgrace. This crisis
is of Labour's making by imposing means testing on
care and pensions and transferring care costs from income tax and National Insurance to council tax.

Labour has continually attacked the vulnerable ever since it came into power, when it cut benefits for the disabled in 1997.

This "consultation" will be a softening up for more cuts, more means testing and more taxation. Brown will do what he always does. Make things so complicated no one will understand what is going on.

He did this with tax and pension credits and will do it again with social care. Has he not heard of Income Tax and National Insurance which was set up for this very purpose? Brown is not an intellectual as is often claimed. He is a bureaucratic buffoon.

A National Care Service should be set up, funded by the Treasury to run in parallel with the NHS and taken out of the hands of local authorities so that everyone gets the same. Not as a post code lottery as it is now.

What Brown should do is consult on national priorities. It is not a priority to invade, and occupy foreign countries. It is not a priority to spend billions bailing out the banks and on the Olympics. It is not a priority to spend billions on new buildings for hospitals and schools when the services in them are being cut. What is a priority is more teachers, smaller class sizes, more nurses and carers. This is a government of capitalism. Not care.