YP Letters: Are we really in it together as billionaires see wealth soar?

Theresa May during a campaign visit to Norwich - has she done enough to tackle inequality?

FIFTEEN years ago, there were 21 UK-based billionaires in the Sunday Times Rich List, Now there are 134. Over the past 12 months, 19 have seen their wealth rise by more than £1bn within a single year.

As many people remain anxious about Britain’s future outside the EU, the total wealth of Britain’s 1,000 richest individuals and families soared to £658bn – a rise of 14 per cent on last year. The combined wealth of the top 500 surged to £580bn, more than the £575bn total wealth of the 1,000 richest people in 2016.

Robert Watts, the list’s compiler, says: “While many of us worried about the outcome of the EU referendum, many of Britain’s richest people just kept calm and carried on making billions.”

Top of the list were Sri and Gopi Hinduja with £16.2bn up £3.2bn on last year. £1bn per year equates to £2.7m a day, or to put it another way, £114,000 an hour.

The 134 represents only the tip of the iceberg, the threshold to join this elite club is £100m. I would like to ask Theresa May to explain again why the austerity measures are still with us and how we’re really all in it together. If we are, I, for one, don’t get it.

From: Mr A Davies, Augusta Park, Grimsby.

THE trade deficit has been a permanent fixture of our economy for two centuries. The underlying cause of the deficit is the low productivity economy from which we have suffered since the 1870s. We now lag some 30 percentage points behind the leading nations. The years since 2008 have not been encouraging. In the years 2010 and 2015 both productivity and living standards fell. I cannot recall any previous government which has presided over such a dismal performance.

From: D Wood, Howden.

IN response to Don Burslam (The Yorkshire Post, May 2). If all the doom and gloom about Brexit is true, and the country is facing ruin, while the EU marches on from strength to strength, why do the 3.2 million immigrants from the EU still want to stay in the UK instead of returning home to the EU Utopia?

From: John Fisher, Menwith Hill, Harrogate.

IF the future of the UK outside the EU is such a certain success as forecast by many Brexiteers, then a hard Brexit should have little, or no, impact on our commercial future. If Brexit turns into a commercial nightmare, and the UK falls off a financial cliff, we will quickly find out who our real friends are.