HOW amusing to see B East pull out the old chestnut: "You can’t tax the rich, because if you do they’ll leave. So you must tax the poorer people instead, because they can’t afford to leave" (HAS, May 18).

I’ve been around long enough to know that the rich don’t care about anything other than their money, and themselves. Not their country, not the poor, not the disabled. The motto of Thatcher’s Britain: "I’m alright Jack, stuff everyone else."

It’s such a shame that money cannot buy a conscience.

Alan Price, Gateshead

B EAST of Bishop Auckland asks “if the rich clear off, who pays the poor?” (HAS, May 18).

Well, it will be the same taxpayers who have always paid them: those taxpayers who can’t negotiate sweetheart deals with the HM Customs and Revenue, who can’t afford clever accountants, and who can’t scuttle off to some tax haven with their money.

Terence Fineran, Darlington