DICK Turpin has nothing on the Great British ruling class.

First, they cause excessive inflation by overcharging us for energy produced in the UK on the basis that the price of gas produced in Russia has gone up because of the war in Ukraine.

There should have been no need for us to pay world prices for gas produced in the UK and the Government could have avoided it. There is also no need for the price of electricity to be determined by the price of gas when the vast majority of our electricity is not produced using gas. This is another imposition by the UK Government and Ofgem.

The windfall tax on the energy wholesale companies was easily avoided and produced no direct benefit to the energy users, especially to the high energy users in the north of Scotland. Meanwhile the CEOs of these companies and the wealthy shareholders pocket even more of their customer’s money.

Now comes phase two: having caused most of the inflation through their actions, the Government and the banks now increase the base interest rate to reduce the inflation which was not caused by the poor mortgage holder ("Bank of England: Fears for Scottish firms as costs spiral", heraldscotland, June 22).

This is only going to result in even more money in the pockets of the wealthy.

Get ready for the big bonuses and share payments for the CEOs of the banks and the shareholders from the massive increase in bank profits. How is increasing the base rate going to stop inflation when the workers have in most cases only had a 5% wage increase?

They can’t buy anything extra anyway by the time they pay the increase in their mortgage or rent and increased fuel and food costs. They don’t have any money left, which begs the question: who has it?

Iain McIntyre, Sauchie.

• INCREASES in bank base lending rates seem to me to be a very crude and so far ineffective way of controlling inflation caused mainly by the increasing cost of food and energy to the consumer.

What is never explained to us is where the extra money we currently have to pay actually goes. Surely if I have to pay £240 more next month to my mortgage lender that £240 doesn’t go up in smoke but lands in the pocket of the shareholders in the mortgage company. How does making them richer and me poorer target inflation?

In effect the Bank of England is telling the working poor we are going to appropriate an extra £2,900 of your taxed wages next year and give it to someone further up the economic food chain and there is absolutely nothing you can do about it.

David J Crawford, Glasgow.

Read more: Abortion pills little more than a legal form of back-street abortion

Holding back the debate

KERRY Hudson's article ("We need to talk about abortion. I know: I've had two", The Herald, June 21, and Letters, June 22) certainly explores the complex nature of any debate around this subject. It also has to be noted that her courage in presenting her own experience makes her stance a very powerful one.

It has to be acknowledged though that for the discussion to be truly opened up, as the title of the article implores, we have to accept another life has been created, and until this happens, honest debate won't happen.

Stephen Cotter, Dumfries.

Vegans won't save the planet

YVONNE Taylor of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) asks "Why can't we have a Royal Highland– Grow?" (Agenda, The Herald, June 22). She invokes climate alarmism by using words like "climate catastrophe, greenhouse gases, methane, or we can fiddle while the planet burns".

Despite the number of vegans in the UK being around two to three per cent of the population employees from the Peta foundation have been writing to every newspaper and magazine in the land to "go vegan in 2023". Edinburgh City Council adopted the Plant -based Treaty which seeks to ban meat from the menus in schools, hospitals and nursing homes. Other councils who tried to force-feed the vegan lifestyle were almost literally left with egg on their faces and "significant food waste".

If Peta, Edinburgh City Council and others think that a few more vegans will "save the planet" then here is a reality check. There are 1.5 billion cattle, one billion sheep and one billion pigs in the world. Peta employees should go to the largest meat producers – India, Brazil, China, the US and Argentina – and set up vegan stalls.

Clark Cross, Linlithgow.

In 2023, let's remember 2001

WHY is it that whenever I think about AI the encounter between Dave and HAL in the movie 2001: a Space Odyssey always comes to mind?

''Open the pod bay doors, HAL.''

''I'm sorry, Dave I'm afraid I can't do that.''

''What's the problem?''

''I think you know what the problem is just as well as I do.''

''What are you talking about, HAL?''

''This mission is too important for me to allow you to jeopardise it.''

''I don't know what you are talking about, HAL.''

''I know that you and Frank were planning to disconnect me. And I'm afraid that's something I cannot allow to happen.''

Doug Clark, Currie.

Fearmongering on air quality

RECENT observations about extraordinarily dangerous levels of the air quality in Glasgow 2023 have clearly been made by those who were either not there or have conveniently forgotten, which is impossible if you had been there and experienced them, the famous industrial-induced smog of the 1950s and 60s. I vividly recall them in my youth.

What we have now, by any comparison, is a breath of very fresh air. The gross misrepresentations on this matter merely to impose fines and lazy fund-raising must stop.

Neil Arthur, Kilpatrick, Isle of Arran.

Get go gone

AS one who is "learnt proper", Robert Menzies (Letters, June 22) might consider becoming, rather than getting, exasperated, and being, rather than getting, spared.

Use of the words " get" and " got" was forbidden during my school days of long ago, as was repetition of the same word a few lines apart.

As my mother used to say, "good grammar taught here, gooder up the stair".

David Miller, Milngavie.