Island Echo always welcomes letters to the editor, which may of course not reflect the views of the publication and its staff.
Letter to the editor – 11th December 2024
“Forgive me for perhaps stating the obvious, but I wondered if it was appropriate to raise this today, as tractors are doing their slow drive through London in protest against the swingeing inheritance tax impositions by this new Labour Government.
“There are hundreds of farms on the island that will be affected by the tax. And the entire economy of the island will be changed significantly by the Chancellor’s spiteful whim. One could even argue, quite apart from the empty shelves in supermarkets and the rise in food prices, that many will be thrown into poverty by the tax, as farming stops being a viable business on our island.
Article continues below this advertisement “Yet the new Labour MP for Isle of Wight West, Riichard Quigley, voted with the Government and approved the demise of farming on this island.
“He also voted his approval of the cancelling of the Winter Fuel Allowance, in spite of the poverty on this island – and he wishes to deny people the liberty to choose to end their lives when they already have a terminal diagnosis.
“I felt that Quigley should be called out for his lack of knowledge of the island, lack on understanding of farming – and then got to wondering… what has he actually done for the residents of the island in his 6 months of tenure? It appears that he’s invisible!
“Bob Seely may have been flawed, but he did so much for the island”.
Sue Macgregor
Totland Bay
not saying I agree with the governments inheritance tax changes,..
but…..
perhaps ms Macgregor could give some factual evidence to back up her claims that:
“There are hundreds of farms on the island that will be affected by the tax”
and “the entire economy of the island will be changed significantly”,
and especially “empty shelves in supermarkets and the rise in food prices… as farming stops being a viable business on our island”..
as inheritance tax is only paid when someone dies and the estate is passed on, and then, with all the exemptions…. e.g.
Quote “Farmers may be able to avoid the tax by transferring property at least seven years before death. Married couples may also be able to take advantage of standard household tax allowances, potentially increasing the amount they can pass on tax free to £3 million”
with ~700 farms on the Isle of Wight,. I’m sure not all of their owners are going to die in the next few years,.. so where she gets “hundreds of farms” from is a bit of a mistery ….
oh,..& what good exactly did Half Sausage Seely EVER do for the Island ??
I see he as sorted out Red Funnel in his first 100 days….. I suppose he will sort out Vestas for telling 400 people 2 weeks before Christmas they will probably by out of work.
Best go back to the atrocious council where he belongs.
I agree.
Since being voted in MP Quigley has been conspicuous by his absence for West Wight residents but managed to pop up yesterday when his canteen income at Vestas was being threatened.
There is no way he would have been voted in if they hadn’t changed the boundaries and maybe will not get voted in next time unless he starts supporting the people. (but not Starmer or Reeves).
Ms Macgregor apparently inhabits a parallel universe: “hundreds of farms on the Island”? and “Bob Seely … did so much for the Island”?
He has done absolutely nothing for the people of the Island, he was too cowardly to vote against the despicable fuel allowance fiasco and equally the punishing of the farmers, like all politicians of his ilk he is only interested in himself and his bloated salary together with any allowances he can claim, well done all who voted for him because you were like turkeys voting for Christmas, he won’t be going hungry or cold this winter.
Traitor. He is supposed to represent the area for which he is MP and as that area is mainly farmland which will be adversly affected by this tax, he should have voted against it.
You cannot be surprised, he is labour, they are not allowed free thought or expression, they do the bidding of the union’s and no one else, if the farmer’s union was more allied with moscow and far more militant then the government would be bending over to appease them.
He has no love for the island, or its residents, but a love for power, blindly doing as his master bids, which I’m sure he finds agreeable, as any socialist despises people that have worked hard and gained a little in life.
Utter clown.
The problem on the island is, imo, that people ‘vote local’ in general elections when they should be looking at what is going to happen up the road in Westminster when the winning party takes control.
Seeley was no perfect candidate, but he was ‘for the island’ he was let down by his failing party.
Well, if you were an idiot that voted for a party with no manifesto, other than to destroy England, and the English way of life, suck it up, you have yourselves to blame, and yes, people with intelligence blame you also.
I don’t think Labour will last long (hopefully) given the winner of the U.S election……..
Well said Sue, sadly it’s all going to get worse and labour are going to kill off people, they don’t care about anyone and seem to be worse than conservatives
Is anyone surprised any more what politicians get up they all have a eye on future income’s don’t do as i do, do as I say
He has done more for the Island than Bob Seely !
Name something to validate your opinion.
Taking the last two points first, few would agree that Bob Seely “did so much for the Island”. He was very widely regarded as an utter waste of space. Is the writer complaining about Quigley as an individual or just banging a party drum? Similarly, people have differing views on assisted suicide and they have nothing to do with party or location – it was a conscience vote. Quigley did not vote for the demise of farming but for inheritance tax provisions which will only affect a small minority of farmers who, even then, will enjoy a massively advantageous position to the rest of the population. If my family investment was in a factory instead of a farm it would not be exempt from IHT so why should one business be treated differently? As for the winter fuel allowance, we all know that many wealthy people who had no need of help received this allowance – surely, given the shameful mess the last government left behind after 14 years of asset stripping public sevices people understand that not everything can be solved immediately and some things will have to be prioritised. Personally, I am glad that the money is going into the NHS, education and the police as well as other essential services and at last we have a government determined to stabilize the economy for the good of all rather than destabilize it for the benefit of a wealthy few. The greatest threat to farming came from the fallout of Brexit, a policy which most farmers were supporting because, like so much of the population, they believed the lies the Brexiteers told. ow we are all paying the price and will be for years to come.
Your bias and lack of knowledge is obvious in your comments, firstly Brexit has nothing to do with the Inheritance tax and farming, secondly money to be invested in NHS and police, really, the government has already said the NHS is broken and cannot continue without huge reform, the police, yet again the government has said they will be less money for them, stablislising the economy,inflation rising, productivity down, unemployment up, yep,they are doing a cracking job on stablising the economy.
A new great threat to farming will be Bill Gates currently buying up lots of GBs land, since the Usa has stopped him purchasing any more over there. He has an underlying plan (bit like his vaccination investment) for this land as and when we are all forced to be off red meat. Manipulisation at its best!!
Mr Quigley has not once answered any of letters.
and seems arrogant and oblivious to anyone but himself. Let him live on a pension..after being told to save as much as possible we are living off our savings, whilst others come to this country and are given everything. We wouldn’t have a housing shortage if there wasn’t so many illegal immigrants here
The hyperbole in this letter is staggering. No island farm is likely to be affected by the changes to Inheritance Tax: there are still numerous loopholes, the value of most island farms, and probably all of them, is lower than the threshold anyway, but larger landowners are being expected to pay their way – as the rest of us have to do. If there prove to be problems, matters can and will be adjusted – frankly, if for no other reason than that it’ll be in the government’s interests to do so. No one doubts that farming is a demanding job and a vital one; I know Richard Quigley, and I know he’s aware of that.
If Bob Seeley had been an effective MP, incidentally – he might have kept his seat.
I doubt that Richard is any happier about the Winter Fuel decision than any of us; but a new MP is bound to give his government a chance to prove it’s got its decisons right. In this case, I don’t believe it has, but that’s a matter of opinion. What he HAS done is establish a working relationship with his fellow MP, the Conservative Joe Robertson, to get some progress on the ferries – which is more than Bob ever managed (though it’s not an easy task).
Bob Seely was a well educated politician and he is missed
by many, people can say what they like about Bob.
I doubt it very much that he would go against his
Constituents.
How can an MP who represents an island with a large
elderly population and a large farming community go
against his constituents
(Very concerning), he is lost trust in 5 months.
Seely might have been well educated but at the end of the day he was useless just like all these other parasite MPs
Another corrupt parasite labour MP, no good for nothing what so ever, get rid of the lot of them, they’re all bl**dy evil