I HAVE been struck by statistics from the Trussell Trust highlighting the fact that the use of food banks in Scotland has risen by 20 per cent in the last year (“Use of food banks has risen by 20 per cent in past year, says charity”, The Herald, November 7).

In addition, The Austerity Generation, a report just released by The Child Poverty Action Group and Institute for Public Policy Research, has revealed one million more children will be driven into poverty by the end of the decade as a result of the Conservative UK Government’s welfare reforms. The United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities also recently noted that the UK Government had acted with total neglect when it came to the rights of disabled people.

However, these rises in child poverty, homelessness, hunger and undue harm to disabled people are not enough to make Theresa May’s Government reverse its devastating policies.

Contrast this with the latest revelations from the Paradise Papers, which highlights politicians, celebrities and companies protecting their cash from the tax man and hiding their financial dealings (“Paradise Papers reveal how stars and tech giants avoid paying tax", The Herald, November 7). These even extend to the Queen, who invested £10m of her personal fortune in an offshore tax haven in the Cayman Islands and Bermuda.

So, while we have a Tory Government fixated on tackling what is the relatively minor financial issue of benefit fraud, it seems more than a little lax in closing the loopholes that ensure that those, many of whom coincidentally are Tory supporters and donors, are able to squirrel their money away offshore.

Our moral compass as a nation is seriously askew, as we have a Government seeking to balance its budget on the back of the most vulnerable, while many of the wealthiest seek to avoid their tax obligations.

Alex Orr,

Flat 2, 77 Leamington Terrace, Edinburgh.

AS a 92-year-old l ask for help. Where has our country gone wrong? We brought in the old age pension. We founded the welfare state. Now even people in good jobs have to seek help in food banks.

Meanwhile the rich, including the Queen, invest millions upon millions abroad.

What has my generation done wrong that we pass this house of poverty on to our grandchildren?

Ian Hamilton QC,

Lochnabeithe, North Connel, Argyll.

I DON’T know Chris Deerin’s definition of poverty (“We should attempt to fix capitalism, not seek to kill it”, The Herald, November 7), but I was surprised to read that “billions have been lifted from poverty in recent decades thanks to globalisation and free markets”. I wonder what the billions of people with barely enough to eat and an inadequate supply of drinking water think of their recent lift from poverty?

Richard Beattie,

7 Cairn Place, Galston.

IT is an interesting idea that capitalism should be repaired. But where's the demand? The global concept may have started in earnest in the West, but much of the rest of the world is prospering now under the Wall Street-supported system. It's the turn of other countries to enjoy the benefits from wins in competition and write the rules of governance.What we see here in western states is political isolationism and simple battles to see who suffers first in the downturn.

Ian Jenkins,

7 Spruce Avenue, Hamilton.

THE latest Paradise Papers revelations simply confirm that which has long since been known: namely, that assorted British Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories have routinely been providing mechanisms for the wealthy to pay little or no tax here in the UK.

The question that needs to be asked is why successive UK governments allowed this to happen? When will any government of the day grasp this particular nettle and say, no more? Why should Jersey or the Isle of Man essentially enjoy the benefits of being all but in name part of the UK but behave as they do?

Let these dependencies and territories end these practices or go their own way separate and apart from the UK.

Michael Collie,

51B Elliot Street, Dunfermline.

IT is time the British super-rich stopped being castigated for investing money abroad perfectly legally. We all try to pay as little tax as possible but it is entirely up to governments and international tax authorities to legislate so that everybody pays a fair share. Next year England may well become a tax haven for us heavily-taxed resident Scots who have not got enough capital to make investing further afield worthwhile. What then?

Alexander Stephen,

Cutty Cottage, Balfron.

AS pals of the rich-but-embarrassed line up to explain to us lesser mortals that tax dodging is legal (paradise for some you might say) are they not forgetting a couple of things?

A), Tax dodges are legal because the law was drawn up by the class that benefits from the arrangement. B), It may be legal but it's not morally justifiable.

Amanda Baker,

Saughton Gardens, Edinburgh.

HER Majesty the Queen pays income tax on a voluntary basis. Any chance of this principle being extended to the peasantry? Thought not.

Holyrood seems to have taken the eye off the ball here. Wouldn't this really put free university tuition fees, free prescriptions and free bus travel for the over-sixties well in the shade?

What a missed goal. Paradise indeed.

Malcolm Allan,

2 Tofthill Gardens, Glasgow.

TAX evasion illegal – prosecute. Tax avoidance not illegal – then change the law.

Simple, innit? Or is it?

Too many very rich with too much to lose?

R Russell Smith,

96 Milton Road, Kilbirnie.

VINCE Mills (Letters, November 9) wants a wealth tax and higher income tax on high earners but concedes that the wealthy find ways of secreting their wealth. The wealthy are more mobile than the rest of us and in the 1970s entrepreneurs and stars fled the country when in some cases tax approached 100 per cent.

When Sir Geoffrey Howe reduced the top rates of tax in 1979, tax revenues increased, as high earners stopped avoiding tax because of the unfairness of the system.

David Miller,

80 Prestonfield, Milngavie.