Feeding frenzy

Your report (11 August) shows Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon shamelessly using a funding allocation for food banks to promote a Yes vote in the referendum. This is public money being used to further one side in the campaign.

UK and Holyrood elections have a purdah period beyond which announcements of this type cannot be made.

I understand the purdah period for the independence referendum does not come into being until 21 August. No doubt we will see a constant stream of goodies on offer until then, all funding partisan politics at the expense of the taxpayer.

Robert Cairns

Harrietfield

Perth

Alex Salmond has implied that food banks would not be necessary in an independent Scotland (referring to the number in Glasgow during his televised debate with Alistair Darling).

According to the European Federation of Food Banks website, no European country – even the smaller ones that Mr Salmond wants an independent Scotland to emulate – is free of food banks.

Iceland has about the same proportion of people in food poverty (5 per cent) as the UK and, by implication, Scotland, while Mr Salmond’s favourite, Norway, has about half that proportion, as does Ireland.

If a wealthy independent country like Norway cannot do without food banks, it’s unlikely that an independent Scotland would do any better.

Steuart Campbell

Dovecot Loan

Edinburgh