Editor

I enjoyed the rhetorical flow of Anne Bennett’s letter. (‘Divisive words’ Letters, 13 May), but in its flow it seemed to neglect an important distinction. It is the distinction between, on the one hand, owning one’s own company and working in it, and on the other working for someone else’s company and not owning any part of it.

Cleaning the lavatories of hospitality industry facilities that one owns is one thing. Cleaning other people’s lavatories for the minimum wage in order that the owners’ capital investment grows, is another entirely.

Especially so in this era of Covid-19, a disease which can be passed on to anyone who cleans an infective person’s lavatory because the virus is shed by those infected during successful visits to the t? bach.

Many of the jobs Ms Bennett lists involve close contact with other people. The West Midlands, from where come almost all of Barmouth’s visitors, has a high rate of infection. Some tourist facilities here themselves threaten transmission, should the disease be present, because of the inevitable close contact between tourists. Crossing Barmouth Bridge on a bike, thus pumping out airborne droplets from lusty lungs, threatens other cyclists and pedestrians, because the footpath on the bridge is very narrow. Sitting at little cafés near strangers who may, who knows, have the disease, is risky - a risk those who wait at table share willy nilly.

To meet the cost of Covid-19, of our Brexit deal, of making good the neglect that Austerity caused, and of dealing with the Climate Emergency will cost hundreds of billions that only the financial capital of the rich can fund. But the rich command not only vast quantities of capital but also of income.

Indeed were income equally divided, and given the potential loss of a third of GNP, per capita income for every single adult and child would be £24,000 pa!

That is why I talk of UEI, the Universal Equal Income, for everyone, absolutely everyone. That would be paid whether we are threatened by Covid-19 or not.

So many of the jobs Ms Bennett puts us in mind of are just not vital or necessary, except in the minds of the owners of the facilities, their capital and profits.

Despite current talk that such jobs are highly skilled, my feeling is that we should risk reallocating them to the inter-generationally idle rich and make free those presently burdened by doing them.

Owners of hospitality facilities cannot expect people from the West Midlands to risk hideous illness and vile death in order to protect their capital investments.

I reported to you the positively noble decisions of West Midlanders in eschewing the seduction of risky leisure pursuits (‘Beaches were deserted’ CN Letters, 12 April) And they still are this weekend.

Because people don’t want to threaten others, nor be threatened by others, by Covid-19, good people are avoiding potentially crowded, albeit, enjoyable, leisure activities.

No amount of flowing rhetoric from locals worried about their capital should be allowed to undermine West Midlanders’ extraordinarily dignified decision making.

Dr Mac MacIntyre Shelbourne Court St John’s Hill Barmouth

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