Wrong priorities

Published on 20/10/2012 00:00

Joyce McMillan (Perspective, 19 October) has a strange notion of what constitutes a sharp shift to the right by Johann Lamont.

It ought to be embarrassing for Nationalists to have it pointed out that while they congratulate themselves on free higher education for all, their government has been cutting back 
severely on further education colleges’ funding.

Likewise, a freeze on council tax, not covered by government funding to make up a council’s loss of income, inevitably leads to consequences like “personal care” amounting to a rushed 15 minutes’ worth, and schools cutting back on basic equipment that has been taken for granted for decades.

So what is social democratic about making school children and the frail elderly pay?

We can all dream about how we would spend the Trident money some time in the future. But in the here and now, priorities have to be decided. Usually parties of the left and centre-left put the needs of the disadvantaged above the needs of the
better off.

But, unable to give a coherent answer to these criticisms, the SNP and its apologists call this a move to the right.

As Aneurin Bevan commented many years ago: “The language of priorities is the religion of socialism.”

But I have another quotation from Bevan that fits very well with the SNP sales talk: “If you are selling shoddy stuff, you have to be a good salesman.”

Maria Fyfe

Ascot Avenue

Glasgow