The Secretary of State for Scotland, Alister Jack, is keen to remind us, when it suits, that “Scotland has two governments”. Before that, I recall the “heroin epidemic” of the 1980s when some of the older addicts who recently died started using. We had just one government in Westminster, led by Margaret Thatcher. We had Conservative governments until 1997, then Labour’s Blair, before the Scottish Parliament even existed. Those governments were responsible for every aspect of drugs policy including “prevention”. Yet more young people became addicts.For eight years Labour was in power in both Westminster and Holyrood, therefore responsible for every aspect of drugs policy. Yet more young people became addicts.

The Conservatives returned to power in Westminster in 2009. The Lib Dems had some years of power-sharing in both parliaments. The “war on drugs” continued and yet more young people became addicts. The SNP took power at Holyrood, one of our two governments responsible for drugs policy, in 2007.

If the SNP government is solely and entirely responsible for drug-related deaths now, surely all these previous governments must be entirely responsible for people becoming addicts since 1979? Of course, the reality is much, much more complex than that.

The group Faces And Voices of Recovery hold a protest outside the Scottish Parliament in July 2022 as Scotland’s drugs death figures were published (Picture: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

Scottish opposition politicians should acknowledge the history and context, show some humility for their own governmental failings, and drop this blatant, shameless political point-scoring.

Robert Farquharson, Edinburgh

Not the answer

It’s no great surprise to see Kenny MacAskill, our arch-separatist, in his latest Scotsman column (Perspective, 13 July) proclaiming that the solution to eliminate the appalling drugs-death rates in Scotland is to decriminalise the use of noxious substances.

This is yet another example of Mr MacAskill simply having a go at Westminster for refusing to fall in line with a daft SNP/Greens policy ambition, and without an iota of evidence as to how allowing free use of drugs “for personal use” will solve the problem. It would be far better to hear from him regarding the problems in Scottish society that lead to naive youngsters being suckered into a lifetime of addiction and ruin by criminal drug traders.

Does he not think, for a moment, that such freedom of use will simply increase the amount of drugs on our streets and cause yet more damage to countless lives?

Thankfully, Westminster has demonstrated more common sense than the combined SNP/Greens/Alba, and refused to countenance such a solution.

Surely, for most thoughtful people, the answer to this problem is a much more determined attitude by our police and courts to punish those in the drugs trade and to stop the illegal importation of such substances into Scotland.

Derek Farmer, Anstruther, Fife

Welcome all

Alex Orr suggests our UK government has lost humanity in acceptance of immigrants because they have painted out a picture of Mickey Mouse (Letters, 12 July). Surely Scotland would be a fine place for these people, as we have a record of accepting those from other countries who have proven productive, and have quickly integrated Poles, Chinese, and people from India and Pakistan. Indeed, Scotland is presently being run by a gentleman of Pakistani background.

The population of Scotland has been stuck at around 5 million for over a century, so immigration is to be encouraged to fill our empty Highlands, for example. This would also provide strength for independence, as the economic benefit of immigration eventually kicked in. An approach to the UK government from Mr Orr would be welcome for sure, as England – whose population has doubled in that equivalent century – simply can’t accommodate more people. The trains northward could start tomorrow.

This would be a constructive move for Scotland, and Mr Orr would be feted for his initiative.

Malcolm Parkin, Kinnesswood, Kinross

Proportionality

In the current furore over bumping up the top four bands in the Scottish council tax system, the Scottish Government have again repeated a very questionable statistic. That's the claim that council tax in Scotland is lower than in England.

The principle both sides of the Border is that it is a tax take based on house values, albeit in both cases dating back to valuations in the early 1990s. Both parts of the country have a range A to H; thus a Band G in Aberdeen in 2022/3 might pay £2,700 but in Cambridge, £3,200. On the surface, that looks like a bargain for Scots.

The flaw is that a Band G house in England, right from the start, was in a value range about 50 per cent higher than in Scotland. All the bands, in fact, were similarly proportionally higher in England. The discrepancy will be even more pronounced now, due to relatively low growth in Scottish residential property values.

This means that the true tax-to-value penalty for living in Scotland is about to become wider if the proposals are implemented. Many Scots will be paying more than in England relative to actual house values. I challenge the Scottish Government statisticians to demonstrate the actual ratios of tax to value, and not lazily assume the bands in Scotland are equivalent, when clearly they are not!

(Cllr) Peter Smaill, Borthwick, Edinburgh

Tax chasm

David Alexander’s article (“Green housing policies threaten supply of homes”, 13 July) outlined the capital costs of a heat pump system but did not extend to to the operating costs. As electricity is expensive (four times that of gas) then annual energy bills will rise above current yearly costs and bake-in the cost-of-living crisis in Scotland. In addition, as the SNP plan to increase the current renewable electricity capacity of 15GW with an additional 45GW of windmills and 25GW of gas turbine plant when a total of only 20GW of capacity will meet the 2045 maximum winter demand, there will be a massive Constraint Payment bill that needs to be added to the operating cost of a heat pump system.

Add on to the above prices the increase in council tax, the proposed increase in tax to be imposed on higher and top rate tax payers in the 2024/25 budget, plus the additional tax to meet the demands of the STUC, and the tax gap between Scotland and rUK will increase to that of a chasm!

Ian Moir, Castle Douglas, Dumfries and Galloway

Loose change

There is an argument, surely, that the hefty expenses run up by former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s appearances on TV shows and the like should be reimbursed to the public purse. This is especially relevant given the cost of living crisis and everyone else having to tighten their belts. For example, her trip to London for TV appearances, principally as I understand it, a spot on Loose Women, included a £500-plus a night hotel and business class flights amounting to at least £1,200. Surely the TV companies pay a substantial fee and expenses?

Coming on top of the extravaganza of the now notorious “climate-saving” trip to Egypt, where she and a large entourage arrived uninvited and performed no official role whatsoever, and again cost us eye-watering sums, it would suggest that all sense of instinctively doing the right thing has been abandoned entirely.

When we are handed her bills to settle in the present economic situation, it is beyond unfair. Money is always available, it seems, for these grandstanding occasions but seemingly never for what most would consider eminently more important and vital matters.

Alexander McKay, Edinburgh

Two-way street

Speaking as one of Scotland’s many Irish “colonisers” referred to by Andrew HN Gray (Letters, 13 July) it would be hard to disagree with his assertions. This process has been underway for over a thousand years, since the foundation of the Gaelic kingdom of Dalriada on the west coast.

But it’s a two-way street; Lowland Presbyterians arrived in the north of Ireland during James VI’s plantation of Ulster. And during the 1930s George Orwell even spoke of the “Scotchification” of England through golf, porridge and the popularity of names like Gordon, Alistair and Donald. We’re certainly a mixed bunch in this United Kingdom.

Is it possible that the notion of Scottish “colonisation” originated from words uttered by a heroin-addicted character in a certain Irvine Welsh novel? Ironic, considering that some correspondents attempt to claim there’s a link between being “colonised” and experiencing long-running drug epidemics.

Martin O‘Gorman, Edinburgh

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Readers' Letters: Don't blame SNP alone for drugs death toll

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