Readers’ Letters: What price for this spending?

I wanted to know your readers’ views about universal income, as proposed by MP Richard Thomson in Friday’s EE.

https://www.eveningexpress.co.uk/fp/news/local/furlough-fund-misses-mark-for-far-too-many-says-north-east-mp/

My only concern is how it’s all to be paid for.

We have a furlough scheme, currently costing the UK around £40 billion per month, which will undoubtedly all be paid for in the future by tax rises and more cutbacks.

I recently wrote to the EE regarding many pleas for NHS workers to be given another pay rise, as well as increasing the minimum wage to £10 per hour.

Needless to say, that’s not cheap – although given that many local food retailers report a boom in trade during lockdown, perhaps they could share their good fortune by raising the wages for these hard-working staff members they constantly praise.

I say again, spending money is easy – having an economy that can afford it, that’s the hard part.

Andrew Lamb, Fraserburgh.