Readers' Letters: Sunak snubs poorest after losing UK billions
He resigned from his position the day after but it was a time, of course, when honour in politics was more common.
Fast forward to the present when we have a chancellor who tells the public that “We can’t help everyone because it’s too expensive”. A public that is struggling to cope with ever increasing inflation, an increase in National Insurance contributions, energy costs going through the roof and cuts to benefits for the most vulnerable in society.Conveniently forgotten by Rishi Sunak is the £9 billion in useless PPE and £16 billion (and still counting) that he has written off due to fraud and error in Covid loan schemes. We’ll forget about the £38 billion squandered by his government on a not-fit-for-purpose test and trace system for the moment.What would this £25 billion of public money which was “lost” on this Chancellor’s watch have done to alleviate the extreme hardships so many people are now having to deal with? And he has the temerity to state: “Only the Conservatives can be trusted with taxpayers’ money.”The SNP ferries debacle shows incompetence somewhere along the line, certainly, but this is chickenfeed compared to the astronomical amount of money squandered by Sunak and the Tory government who just seem to laugh it off.D Mitchell, Edinburgh
Reduce duty
The fuel duty reduction introduced by the Chancellor is unfair, costly for the public purse and points completely in the wrong direction. The larger the gas guzzler, the higher the discount at the forecourt. It is therefore precisely those households that least need it (and least expect it), those with the most income, that are likely to benefit the most from this. Meanwhile, public transport use and climate-friendly mobility are comparatively disincentivised.
A fuel duty reduction may produce photo opportunities for the Chancellor, but it is not a serious solution to a serious problem. For private households – many without access to a car – a mobility allowance paid via the tax and benefits system would provide more immediate, meaningful and fair relief, while stimulating the economy without distortion.
Harald Tobermann, Chair, Edinburgh Bus Users Group
Freedom to fail
Frances Scott lists SNP “freedoms”; they are all aspirations (Letters, 28 March). It is reasonable to link the likelihood of their delivery to SNP past performance. As a New Scot who came from London via the USA to work at the UK-funded Medical Research Council Institute of Virology in Glasgow I watched the rise of the SNP with interest; “Its Scotland's Oil” posters were powerful.
But for me the biggest test it faced was addressing the “Glasgow Effect”, the miserably short life expectancy suffered by its citizens, the worst in the UK. But despite the SNP having full control of the levers of health policy for all the years it has been in power, the effect has not diminished, It has got worse. “Freedom to fail” should be added to Frances Scott's list of SNP freebies.
Hugh Pennington, Aberdeen
Burning questions
Just over a week since a BBC documentary was aired on the sinister history of the Gruinard Island anthrax tests and the battle to force HM Government to clean it up, the entire island has been mysteriously gutted end to end by fire, killing hundreds of breeding birds.I'm sure this was just coincidence, and that soggy uninhabited islands regularly spontaneously combust a mere six days into spring after one of the wettest winters on record.
Mark Boyle, Johnstone, Renfrewshire
Ferry well done
As Kate Forbes told BBC Scotland on Monday morning, the problem with the CalMac ferries lies with the construction, not the procurement process, which met international standards, or who signed off the contract. Article 25 of the Auditor General’s report illustrated that CMAL reduced its financial risk to 50 per cent of the total contract value. Ferguson Marine was not in a financial position to guarantee the full contract and the Scottish Government obviously took on the risk rather than moving the work abroad. It was CMAL that specified the requirement for dual fuel engines.
Under the UK Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier programme, two ships cost taxpayers £6.2 billion, some £2.3bn over the initial budget, which is enough to rebuild the entire CalMac fleet, but I don’t remember days of media hysteria, endless political point scoring or suggestions that the United Kingdom wasn’t capable of governing itself.
Mary Thomas, Edinburgh
Resigned
I wonder how many of your readers remember Henry McLeish, David McLetchie and Wendy Alexander, all of them Holyrood party leaders who resigned over relatively trivial issues? McLeish, as first minister, claimed that his peccadillo was “a muddle, not a fiddle”, and so it may have been. I don’t recall any of them being accused of misleading parliament – let alone being involved in as murky a deal as that currently involving ferries. Standards at Holyrood have crashed and burned.
When Nicola Sturgeon was found to have misled parliament over the Salmond inquiry, she was not required to resign.
Sturgeon shows no sign of resigning over the ferries debacle where it is alleged that she has misled parliament – quite apart from resigning over the SNP’s world-beating incompetence that has been laid bare.
My question is: just what does a First Minister now have to do for it to be incumbent on her to resign?
Jill Stephenson, Edinburgh
Blameless?
Last week Kate Forbes couldn’t say who was responsible for signing off the Ferry fiasco contract as it was “before her time”. Today she is adamant that it was Derek Mackay, even though it seems he was on holiday at the time.
However, this does imply that she has done some investigation, presumably of a record or two that might have been created at the time? Surely we, the taxpayers, should be given access to this record to show who is telling the truth and who isn’t? All of the opinions and views cannot be correct, so someone is hiding something. Jim McColl’s forecast that this could cost a staggering £400 million is probably going to be near the mark, though instantly dismissed by Ms Forbes, who bases her estimate on “facts”. Given her lack of knowledge of the facts last week, I suspect Jim McColl will be right. So, the big question is, who is going to take the blame? The SNP are good at blaming others. Will they do it to themselves, or is Derek Mackay an unfortunate but convenient scapegoat?
Ken Currie, Edinburgh
Planet ER
As I cycled along yesterday, an ambulance came along, with its siren on and blue lights flashing. Everyone moved to the side to let it through. Those actions were immediate and instinctive. Our actions were a courtesy to all those in the ambulance, one that we all trust will be repaid if it was ever our turn to be in that ambulance.
No one asked for the siren and lights to be switched off as being too alarmist.
No one spoke to the driver requesting they slow down, or stop, or go into reverse, or go down multiple cul-de-sacs. Such delays could be deadly.
No one blocked the ambulance saying there was no point due to there being less considerate people elsewhere on the route to the hospital.
No one questioned whether the patient was truly ill; nor did anyone enter the ambulance to rip off the oxygen mask, or create further fresh wounds.
All those negative actions and behaviours are correctly unthinkable.
However, if we consider the patient to be the planet, several of your regular contributors put forward exactly these arguments.
So my plea to them all is to simply to ask what more can you do to help this particular patient arrive at the hospital in good time.
Iain MacDonald, Broughty Ferry, Dundee
Barnett boost
Thanks to the Barnett formula Scotland receives £2,000 per man, woman and child extra in public spending compared with the United Kingdom average. But that extra doesn't go to every Scot – it goes to the SNP administration in Scotland, who decide how it should be spent. Thus we have all the freebies which the SNP claim as their own.
But instead of this largesse being squandered on things like baby boxes, rusting ferries, empty buses and trains, Gaelic signage everywhere, and much more, would it not be better if it in part went directly to the Scottish public?
That would act as a brake on Holyrood's excesses as well as allowing every Scot to decide how the Barnett bonus should be spent.
A cheque for £1,000 paid to every Scot directly from the Bank of England instead of into Holyrood's coffers might cause consternation in the SNP hierarchy but certainly would be gratefully welcomed by the Scottish people.
William Loneskie, Oxton, Berwickshire
Silly census
Today I received a letter from the compilers of the Scotland's Census dated 21 March stating they had not received my return. We all know that the return concerned the night of 20 March, so I fail to see how a posted return could reach them by the 21st.
I wonder how many households received this communication and how much it cost us.
Martha Dickson, Edinburgh
Write to The Scotsman
We welcome your thoughts. Write to [email protected] including name, address and phone number – we won't print full details. Keep letters under 300 words, with no attachments, and avoid 'Letters to the Editor/Readers’ Letters' or similar in your subject line. If referring to an article, include date, page number and heading.
A message from the Editor
Thank you for reading this article. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by coronavirus impacts our advertisers. If you haven't already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription. Click on this link for more information.