SO John Swinney complains about cutting the winter fuel allowance for pensioners. Fair enough, you may say – though he ruins it by citing it as a Scexit justification. But why isn’t Swinney even attempting to pay it out of devolved administration resources? He could, say, scale back and pay to those aged over 70, or allocate according to council tax band.
But he is apparently happier giving up and blaming Westminster. The reality is that the SNP administration, despite the huge benefits the Barnett Formula particularly brings to Scotland , has so badly managed Scotland’s finances (ferry procurement springs to mind) that there’s little room for manoeuvre. The nationalists enthusiastically spend public cash on non-devolved areas, particularly foreign affairs, even though this pointlessly duplicates expenditure made by Westminster.
And what about universal rather than targeted benefits that until recently have secured many middle-class votes in one election after another? Can it really be right that the poorest taxpayers fund free prescriptions and university fees for the wealthy in Scotland, when the less well-off here can’t afford to heat their homes? Rather than, in the usual Pavlovian manner, blaming Westminster for Scotland’s financial woes, perhaps Swinney instead should take a long, hard look at himself and his party? Martin Redfern, Melrose, Roxburghshire. Read more: Letters: The UK government has made too many errors to ignore Letters: Scotland is a more divided and intolerant society David Cameron's stupidity nearly cost us the Union Swinney was utterly shameless JOHN Swinney’s comments on the tenth anniversary of the 2014 independence referendum continue the SNP’s approach of treating those who do not agree with them with disdain and being utterly dishonest about the SNP’s record in government. For the more than half of Scotland who have consistently valued being part of the UK, Mr Swinney, like his predecessors, speaks as if we and what we care about do not matter.
As he speaks glowingly about what ‘independence’ offers, he ignores that he is speaking about the break-up of what for so many is our country, namely Scotland in the UK. Wearing full-strength, rose-tinted spectacles, he talks of the independence referendum having “left an overwhelmingly positive legacy on our country”, ignoring a decade of deep divisions and the stirring of grievance that his government has been at the forefront of promoting. Shamelessly, he goes on to make the truly incredible claim that the case for independence will now be proven by his government showing how well they can perform on the fundamentals of public services like health and schools, even though it is on these and a whole range of critical public services that the SNP government has so demonstrably failed Scotland over the last 17 years.
The First Minister might expect his core supporters to fall for this politics of pretence, but surely he must realise that the majority of Scots, including many who once votes Yes, and some of his ex-senior colleagues, have long since recognised that he and his party have lost all credibility. Keith Howell, West Linton. Scotland’s hands are tied IGNORING the fact that energy policy is reserved to Westminster and that Labour MPs promised to “save Grangemouth” during the election campaign, Neil Mackay (“Grangemouth and the Games .
.. a Scottish tale of bread and circuses”, September 19) also fails to appreciate the link between sport and good health.
And that is why the Commonwealth Games can leave a lasting benefit for Scotland. Britain is the “sick man of Europe” when it comes to health, according to a new report which highlights serious concerns about a rise in the number of people off work due to long-term illness. Health challenges facing the nation have reached “historic proportions”, according to the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR).
After 25 years of Labour rule in Wales the situation is much worse than in Scotland but this week the First Minister Eluned Morgan blamed NHS bosses for long waiting lists rather than take any responsibility. Just this week we learned that two-thirds of maternity units in the English NHS are not safe and that scores of local pharmacies are closing across England. Pharmacists in England are looking to Scotland, where our Pharmacy First scheme is more patient-focused, thanks to a contract between the sector and the Scottish government setting out what services are expected, with payment for every consultation.
Last week, not a single Scottish Labour MP chose to vote against the attack on the winter fuel payment despite previous Labour research suggesting that just such a cut could result in the deaths of 4,000 pensioners. When you lose the chance to run your own economy , as we did in 2014, then there is only so much that you can do to mitigate the mistakes made by Westminster politicians. Every constituency in Scotland voted against a Brexit that continues to devastate the UK economy: and as Norway, Denmark, Finland and Ireland all enjoy a far higher standard of living than the UK, then why not an energy-rich, with a balance of trade surplus, independent Scotland? Mary Thomas, Edinburgh.
Sneers will never deter me BOTH Peter A Russell and I have been writing letters to The Herald for many years now, and while I accept that we will never agree on the constitutional question, I was sorry to read his sneering, sarcastic letter (September 19) regarding two of my letters, one concerning my own son, and the other my experiences of the independence referendum polling day. The Herald letters pages, like most newspapers, tend to be male-dominated, and I would suggest that it is letters like this one from Mr Russell which can discourage many women from writing to newspapers and detailing their own experiences. However, I can assure Mr Russell that no insults from him will discourage this woman from writing letters to The Herald.
Ruth Marr, Stirling. Unionists should change their tune IF Unionist supporters are serious about making calls for Scottish independence go away they might wish to consider abandoning the ‘UK OK’ messaging that successfully drove rafts of undecided voters into the Yes camp in 2014 and has kept them there since. It is a message which, I suspect, would go down like a lead balloon in large parts of England as well.
The UK is blatantly not okay and an admission of this would be the first step towards fixing the many problems we have. Something like “UK OK? Let’s make it better together” might do it for me. However, closing your eyes, putting your hands over your ears and singing the National Anthem loudly in the hope that the nasty noises will go away is merely an act of self-indulgent denial.
Robin Irvine, Helensburgh. My cock-eyed optimism ACCORDING to the Book of Proverbs, where there is no vision, the people perish. Without exception, your pro-Union correspondents want independence to go away and never speak its name again.
There is no positive message for the future – simply more of the same and do as you’re telt by your Westminster betters and their toom tabards in Scotland. It is no vision but rather a baleful nightmare without hope of dawn. For myself I choose to be a cock-eyed optimist that Scotland can and will do better than this and I’m far from alone.
Grant McKechnie, Rutherglen. Currency was key issue in 2014 I KEEP reading about Alex Salmond going on about the 10 wasted years in the Herald. I voted Yes because I believe our children’s children would have a better life.
In my view we would have won if Mr Salmond had told us about the currency instead of saying it would sort itself out. Scotland was far better off before the Scottish parliament was built. Bob Mitchell, Elderslie.
Colleges must get their act together YOUR front page story on the financial issues confronting Scottish colleges illustrates a common problem in the public sector (“Colleges face further job losses amid financial cuts”, September 19). Experts from Audit Scotland, the Scottish Funding Council and Colleges Scotland all seem to agree that current funding isn’t sustainable and blame the Scottish Government. Perhaps the managers and boards of the colleges should address the issue and provide services they can afford? Maybe they could manage their resources? Maybe they could be accountable? Across the public sector senior managers get paid a fortune to .
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. (what?) Allan McDougall, Neilston..
