THE news of the abuse of vulnerable women and children by charity workers is deeply disturbing and shocking.

However, if it wasn’t for the work done by the vast, vast majority of those employed these agencies, many people, especially children, would be receiving no support in disaster zones or war-torn countries across the world.

These agencies are of course funded by the taxpayer, with the UK Government spending £13 billion – 0.7 per cent of GDP – on overseas aid. The danger, of course, is that arising from these incidents not only do people limit their charity giving, but so too does the UK Government.

It is only right that those charities that fail to cooperate with the UK Government over safeguarding lose money, but it would be a travesty and a gross dereliction of duty if the Tory government, under pressure from its right-wing fraternity, reduced funding.

We have already had the sight of MP for the 18th century and Tory leadership hopeful Jacob Rees-Mogg handing in a “charity begins at home” petition to Downing Street, demanding foreign aid be slashed.

It would be an utter disgrace if the right wing, already buoyed by its success in delivering tax breaks for the very wealthy, were to succeed and we were to reduce our aid budget, abandoning our duty to help the poorest and most vulnerable. If this proves successful, it will be the poorer people closer to home who will be next to see their support cut.

Alex Orr
Edinburgh

I IMAGINE you are getting a lot of correspondence regarding the “equal pay” for women march in Glasgow on Saturday. It is wholly correct that women who work for not only Glasgow City Council, but everywhere, are valued the same as men.

The rampant hypocrisy shown by Labour in this matter, and its support, is amazing. Someone said on Twitter that the SNP support had been using this as a political football. It was said by a young girl who happened to be standing in between a member of RISE and a member of Labour – she herself apparently is an unforgiving socialist. Unison, who helped organise the march, are themselves linked heavily with the Labour party too – what is not political about this march?

It’s totally plain to see that it was being used for Labour to gain some sort of traction with the Scottish people. SNP sort it and Labour says “told you so, that was our march what done it”, themselves having been the blame over the past 10 years when they constantly fought against it.

In another “discussion” I was informed it wasn’t about equal pay but about “pay and grading mixed with gender”. I never heard that in their war cry once, it was “what do we want ... equal pay” etc. I suppose fitting that into a wee tune was probably too difficult, but don’t moan if somebody only thinks it’s about equal pay, if all you do is mention equal pay, and then when asked a question or called out on your hypocrisy, change it.

Andy Coyle
Portugal

I WAS glad to note that in her article (100 years on women are STILL fighting to achieve equality, The National, February 10) Mhairi Black mentions that we do have our first female First Minister in Scotland. However, Ruth Davidson, writing on the same theme in The Telegraph on February 7, only mentions the achievement of Margaret Thatcher as first and Theresa May as second female Prime Minister. Is this due to a lapse of memory on the part of Ruth Davidson?

Eva McCarthy
Haddington

TOM Paine, active supporter of American independence, wrote: “I once felt all that kind of anger, which a man ought to feel, against the mean principles that are held by the Tories”. What has changed since 1776?

There has been much written and talked about by Scottish independence supporters about what went wrong at the 2014 referendum. It doesn’t take a great depth of thought to understand that 98 per cent of the press were against independence and to realise how easy it is to challenge any benefits with false analysis and fake news through the social media. Until the supporters of independence can overcome these, the chances of achieving their goal are slim.

Has the Scottish Government approached motor manufacturers and financial services to ascertain if they would move to Scotland if we remained in the EU? Such an outcome would change the minds of many “anti” voters.

Mike Underwood
Linlithgow

I KNOW that anyone can be caught out by a sudden, possibly unexpected change in the weather when hill walking/climbing, but I can’t for the life of me understand the mindset of people who deliberately put themselves in danger when the forecast is sub-zero temperatures and blizzards.

I find it unacceptable that brave people feel obliged to risk their lives to rescue some people who go up hills sometimes with grossly inadequate preparation.

Drivers are bound by law to have their vehicle in a roadworthy condition with seatbelts (if required), good eyesight etc. Surely it’s time similar restrictions were applied to hillwalkers, the vast majority of whom are sensible and well prepared, and therefore would already comply with any legislation.

This tiny minority are not only endangering their own lives, but the life of every single person who tries to save them.

Barry
Blantyre