Clik here to view.
Labour should oppose any government plan to merge tax and national insurance (Warning over Osborne's plan to merge NI and income tax, 21 March). Such a move would close for ever the development of an alternative to the means-tested welfare which took such a huge leap under Gordon Brown's tax credit proposals to reach its apotheosis with Iain Duncan Smith's universal benefit.
What research there is shows that the electorate do not regard national insurance as a tax, despite a bombardment by successive governments to undermine the insurance principle. Labour should resist the temptation to allow an easy passage for any such government plans, even with the potential big hit the government would take as voters saw the standard rate of tax increase from 20% to 32%.
Labour instead needs to begin work on how the insurance system can be reformed so the strains which the global economy increasingly places on individuals and working families can be spread more equitably. Such an approach would draw on the ethical traditions of the party that have been allowed to lie dormant for too long. Such a major initiative by Ed Miliband will not only raise the spirits of party activists but will, I believe, begin to engage seriously with those 5 million voters Labour has lost since 1997.
Frank Field MP
Labour, Birkenhead
• Mr Osborne wants to help holidaymakers who choose to contribute to foreign economies and not their own when on vacation (Air duty freeze in budget for 'squeezed middle', 21 March). I choose not to fly for environmental and economic reasons, and I object to subsidising those who fly, while I have to fork out over 70% of my petrol costs to the government if I want a day at the seaside. If air duty was raised in order to offset road fuel duty, ordinary people would go out and spend, and it would help the British tourism industry and economy.
Rob Parrish
Starcross, Devon
