Is Indyref2 refusal a relief for SNP? – Letters

Boris Johnson has done Nicola Sturgeon a favour, says a reader

Could Nicola Sturgeon and Alex Salmond soon be on opposing sides? (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

Alan Hinnrichs’ letter (“Break the Mould”, 9 July) is a fair summing-up of the revolutionary zeal behind the proposed Independence Party led by Alex Salmond.

Mr Hinnrichs says that “the upper echelons of the SNP have become completely out of touch”, that they are careerists not serious about independence, an example of which, he claims, was Hamza Yousef’s condemnation as racists of extreme nationalists who wanted to turn English back at the border.

Might I suggest that perhaps the “upper echelons” have looked at the enormity of separation and decided now is not the time, and that Boris Johnson’s refusal to allow a second independence referendum actually comes as a huge relief?

They have looked at the economic case and have taken a sensible step back. With a national deficit six times that of the UK, the SNP are relying on the British government to bail them out. Rishi Sunak has dished out more than £10 billion to Scotland to fight the coronovirus crisis.

How could a new country start in a recession with no central bank, no currency, no lender of last resort, no reserves and a negative credit rating? Did they look again at Andrew Wilson’s Growth Commission report and shudder at the decades of super austerity ahead?

Did they also take Clint Eastwood’s advice: “A fella has got to know his limitations?”

Under the SNP, educational standards have plummeted, falling behind the OECD average every year since 2011. Supervision of Scottish care homes during the coronovirus pandemic has been described as a national scandal with deaths per head double that in England. NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde Health Board has been placed under special measures and the Queen Elizabeth Hospital saw 80 hospital acquired infections, two fatal.

In addition, the Royal Hospital for Children and Young People was originally due to open in 2017 but has remained closed because of health and safety issues. Scotland has by far the highest drug death rate in Europe and may indeed have the highest drug death rate in the world.

Caroline Gardner, the Auditor General for Scotland, published a report last October which warned that the NHS in Scotland is on the way to becoming unsustainable with a shortfall in funding of £1.8bn within three years.

William Loneskie, Oxton, Lauder

Ingratitude?

I am very surprised that the SNP do not congratulate the Westminster government on their incredible generosity with the furlough scheme for Scottish workers.

If I were English, I would be outraged by the cautious emergence from lockdown of the Scottish Government. Taking two examples – hairdressers and construction workers. In England they have been working (and contributing through the tax system) for weeks before their still-furloughed Scottish counterparts return to work.

The plight of furloughed airport ground staff will be just the same following the SNP decision to quarantine Scotland’s favourite holiday destination.

I can hear Nicola Sturgeon’s “outrageous” and “sacrilege” comments were the UK government to decide that once they make a decision that a group of workers have to return to work then it applies to all four home nations!

Easy to be ultra-cautious when someone else is picking up the tab!

Douglas Cook, St Ninian’s Road, Linlithgow

Fat of the land

Nicola Sturgeon’s delay in opening health clubs is truly astonishing. The weight and diet problems of our population, and their impact on the Scottish health service, ought to be a priority for this government.

Instead, I feel all planning relating to the Covid outbreak has been subsumed into a political calculation: the SNP needs to be seen to be doing things to its own agenda and “Nicola will look after you” is the overarching message that the Scottish Government wants to get across.

Mick Wharton, Hawick

Jobs warning

I suspect that Shadow Scottish Secretary Iain Murray’s warning of a direct challenge to Nicola Sturgeon’s leadership from senior figures in her party (The Scotsman, 10 July) will come as old news to the First Minister.

From his first opportunity – the victory speech in taking the East Lothian seat at the general election – Kenny MacAskill has attacked the SNP leadership. No help for his campaign from HQ and no visit from senior figures, he railed.

The bulk of his Perspective page, though, was a real warning to the rest of us. Over five columns he reminded us of the jobs lost due to previous economic crises which he suggested would pale beside what is coming down the line from Covid-19. “Much more needs done to tackle unemployment,” he wrote.

But what? Not one policy suggestion! In his text he bemoaned the closures of Bathgate, Linwood and Ravenscraig – all failed government efforts to buck market forces with tax-funded subsidies. Yet today we have SNP multi-million pound bail-outs of Prestwick airport, Ferguson Marine and BiFab following that discredited formula.

Kit Fraser, Belhaven High Street, Dunbar

Population query

In his letter of 9 July, Jos Seligman raised the question of population density as a factor in the ongoing comparisons between the performance of the Scottish and Westminster governments in respect of the Covid-19 pandemic.

This is something which has rarely, if ever, been mentioned in the many letters which have appeared in the The Scotsman over the past months, but is something which must be a significant factor.

England’s population density is 407 people per square kilometre, the third highest in Europe after Malta and the Netherlands. In Scotland it is 68.

Not only that but there is a vastly different ethnic mix. Taking those together, the percentage infection and death rates in Scotland should be significantly less than England, but that is not the case.

In the same edition, Mary Thomas claims that Scotland “has a much better record than England in dealing with Covid”. That certainly does not apply to deaths in care homes. As a percentage of total Covid deaths the figure for England is just under 30 per cent while in Scotland it is 45 per cent!

Also, she berates Boris Johnson for being too late in introducing lockdown. While that may be so, that was on 23 March.

Am I not right in thinking that that is the same date as the lockdown in Scotland introduced by Ms Sturgeon?

Surely if that was an issue she could have introduced it earlier, which she had the power to do? Did her failure not also devastate businesses and threaten jobs?

Ronald Ireland, Loaning Wood, Peebles

University places

Universities Minister Richard Lochhead announces “with a heavy heart” that “free” education for new EU students will end from 2021. I sympathise, because it makes me feel giddy just observing SNP U-turns, so performing them must be considerably more dizzying.

In 2011, when Mike Russell was in charge, he lobbied the EU complaining that the rules on tuition fees were “unfair” and pleaded that Scotland be allowed to “charge appropriate fees on the same basis to students from outwith Scotland”. This was in a bid to “discourage academic tourism”. So when EU rules dictated we had to grant “free” tuition to EU students the SNP had to agree under protest.

Then, following Brexit, when these rules would no longer apply and the SNP was free to implement its 2011 policy, John Swinney pronounced a change of heart. The SNP would choose to continue voluntarily with the regime to which they had previously had such strong objections. The formerly discouraged “academic tourists” were now and for the foreseeable future to be welcomed with open arms.

A magnanimous gesture indeed – at an annual cost to the Scottish taxpayer of £93 million. Now the wheel has turned full circle again. Well, at least the music has hopefully stopped. However, says Mr Lochhead, there will likely be an increase in the number of Scottish students gaining a place. He may well regret this piece of spin since it is a clear admission that the current system has been unfair in denying places to highly qualified Scottish students.

Colin Hamilton, Braid Hills Avenue, Edinburgh

Paying the piper

The Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, in his mini Budget, has set out a £30 billion jobs and discount package as a means of getting shoppers spending to save jobs and the economy, but who is going to pay for it?

Well, initially it will be financed by borrowing as the deficit is under control and interest rates are at an all-time low. In the long term, however, we cannot continue to live beyond our means, and it will be the taxpayer and shoppers who will bear the brunt of the measures to contain the deficit. We need to allow at least two years for the economy to recover, but then we could freeze the personal allowance, public sector salaries and employers’ NHI, and increase VAT and fuel tax to provide more income for the Treasury.

Admittedly these points will have an adverse effect on some parts of the economy as take-home pay and left-over money reduces, but there are not many options left.

James Macintyre, Clarendon Road, Linlithgow

Diet of fear

I went to Edinburgh on Thursday for the first time since early March and I was horrified to find a very quiet Princes Street and the main stores all but deserted. It is no wonder people are staying away, as we are being fed on a diet of fear and apprehension from Nicola Sturgeon.

Another factor is that people will not make the effort to go into city centres if there is nowhere to sit and have a coffee. The two go together!

Can we have a shot of optimism, please?

Alison Fullarton, Lumsdaine, Eyemouth

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