To begin with, it is only paid by the wealthiest segment of our community. This makes it different to income tax that all on the minimum wage must pay, and VAT which is paid by rich and poor alike.

Secondly, inheritance tax is a means of getting something back from those who have sat back and benefited from vast increases in property prices that they haven't earned.

And finally, it isn't paid by yourself, but your heirs who haven't worked to obtain the money.

That doesn't mean I'm not sympathetic to the likes of the two elderly sisters who fear that the one that lives longest could end up having to leave the family home because of inheritance tax. Yet surely the solution here is that she should be allowed to defer the tax due until her own death, rather than not paying the tax altogether?

Wealth of a nation

From: William C McLaughlin, Stonehill Road, Carmichael, Biggar.

SO, now we know – £50m a day from lost oil and gas production due to the Grangemouth shut down. That's £50m a day in oil and gas revenue to Westminster over the last 50 years from Scottish oil and gas resources – and £50m a day for the next 30 years or so from Scottish oil and
gas resources.

That's not including the huge Scottish oil and gas reserves off the Scottish west coast in the North Atlantic. Scotland should be one of the richest sovereign, independent nations on the planet. Why is Scotland paying what are probably the highest prices in the world to fill up at the pumps? Is the United States, Dubai, and Venezuela – to mention only three other oil producing nations?

If the Forties oil and gas field is meeting 40 per cent of UK needs, it stands to reason that it would meet a very high percentage of an independent Scotland's oil and gas needs. The Scottish beast is indeed
still slumbering – we risk becoming the laughing stock of the world if we don't wake up soon.

An exit from political chaos

From: Terry Morrell,
Prunus Avenue,
Willerby, Hull.

AT last the people have spoken – not too convincingly considering the amount of comment one hears during everyday conversation – about the myriad of complaints on a wide range of topics; political correctness, health and safety, stealth taxes, crime and punishment, immigration and the "nanny state".

The usual counter to every problem-solving suggestion is that we are controlled from Brussels, so we cannot deal effectively with these situations.

Then why is it that the UK Independence Party does not proclaim the opportunities that a vote for them could open the door to changing the situation?

A broad manifesto identifying how our exit from Europe would bring some sense to this crazy world of political madness should really bring the many disgruntled voters heading in their direction.

Sense ruled out of court

From: DM Loxley, Hartoft, Pickering.

WHAT better illustration of the insidious bureaucratic destruction of self-confidence which gnaws at the very heart of the soul of humans and society than these stories, all published recently on the same day: "Parents could be banned from teaching their children to drive"; "Fishing without a licence lands headmaster in troubled water"; "Disabled woman asleep in car fined for
permit slip up"; "Petite pensioner deemed a violent patient"; "Archbishop's aide prosecuted for 20p oversight
on bus".

At one time recently, magistrates' courts would not deal with "trifles"; now, it seems, any excuse to secure a conviction is essential.

The most troubling aspect is that this attitude has accelerated in the most recent 10 years. Intelligence and good sense has been legislated out of existence inthe UK.

But why?