It’s the wrong time to push for independence

Has Scotsman columnist Lesley Riddoch got it wrong on independence?

As usual at times of difficulties, Lesley Riddoch (Perspective, 8 June) deems it is the right time to push again for her independence “dream”, or perhaps “nightmare” for the rest of us.

Her arguments, particularly on a financial basis, are simply fanciful. Additionally, her blind loyalty to the performance of the First Minister during this crisis as compared to the Prime Minister – helpfully ignoring the Nike conference cover-up and the scandal of discharging elderly patients from hospital into care home without testing are just two examples – is unsurprising.

However, her only basic economic contributions indicate that the old SNP “Arc of Prosperity” defined previously by Alec Salmond (Ireland, Iceland and Norway) has now moved more generally to the “Nordic and Baltic” states and, yes, I realise Norway is a Nordic state! Additionally, whilst the vacuum cleaning companies, handbag makers and distilleries making ventilators, face masks and hand gel respectively are to be hugely congratulated, they will not bring the economic Utopia she craves.

The hard economic facts are that of a Scottish population of about 4.5 million adults, 2.5 million pay no income tax and therefore are unlikely to be paying other taxes such as capital gains tax. Only 351,000 people pay the higher rate of tax and just 16,000 people – or 0.3 per cent of Scottish adults – pay the top rate due to earning more than £150,000pa.

Whilst I agree that small can be a good thing, Scotland simply does not have the ability to raise income tax receipts any further, and to then look at perhaps inheritance tax and capital gains tax as possible “income” generators will drive those able to pay such taxes elsewhere.

Perhaps Ms Riddoch will now understand why the UK Exchequer funds Scottish public spending to the tune of around £1,900 per head higher in Scotland than in England and still Scotland has one of the highest deficits in Europe.

Far from her comment “the case for independence could not be stronger”, it is this current crisis that truly demonstrates that we are stronger together and that independence would be an economic and social catastrophe.

Richard Allison, Braehead Loan, Edinburgh

Health is a devolved issue

I see Lesley Riddoch has shifted her view on governmental management of the coronavirus from – I paraphrase – “Isn’t our Nicola doing a grand job” to “It’s all wicked Westminster’s fault”.

Ms Riddoch’s shifting stance maps closely to the soaring coronavirus Scottish death rates, with a particular tragedy playing out in many care homes north of the Border.

Let’s not forget health is entirely devolved, as is much of the management of the pandemic. Ms Sturgeon, for example, had the power to lock down earlier; she could have chosen not to send untested elderly people from hospitals to care homes. Her choices, not Downing Street’s.

The truth is that Ms Sturgeon placed herself at the centre of the Scottish response and so is responsible, not Johnson.

Martin Redfern, Melrose, Roxburghshire

Limited powers

The main reason the Covid pandemic is so bad in Scotland (Brian Monteith, 8 June) is that we are part of the UK with limited fiscal powers and no control over our borders.

Like Wales and Northern Ireland, we had little choice but to follow UK policy and timescale which supposedly followed Sage advice over which Dominic Cummings had more influence than any arm’s length Scottish input.

Despite this, the Scottish Government made Covid-19 a notifiable disease earlier than in England and announced an earlier ban on mass gatherings. Also, the average z scores of additional mortality between weeks ten to 20 show the England figure as almost three times higher than in Scotland as our joined- up health service is working much better. Prof Hugh Pennington retired 17 years ago and it is an insult to current up-to-date public health experts who advise the Scottish Government to imply that they don’t have sufficient expertise.

The support given to industry by the UK government lags well behind that in Germany, Italy and France, plus small independent countries like Denmark, Finland and Norway have matched the UK support for businesses and employees.

Unlike Boris Johnston and Matt Hancock, Nicola Sturgeon has admitted that, with the benefit of hindsight, mistakes were made in the early stages and she has faced daily scrutiny from a mainly hostile press and Parliament, while the Tory UK government has boycotted numerous television programmes as they asked “Why?”.

Fraser Grant, Warrender Park Road, Edinburgh

Sad times

It’s hard to know where to start following the weekend’s events. Leaving aside one’s take on the George Floyd events in America, it’s hard to see how the right to peaceful protest trumps the need for social distancing during a world health pandemic. As someone said: “Black lives matter but so do all our lives.”

As for the scenes in London, history might well judge Winston Churchill a racist, but he was an iconic leader who played a crucial part in keeping us safe during the Second World War – something which those who daubed his statue and the Cenotaph would do well to remember.

The scenes from Bristol reminded me of the tearing-down of the Saddam Hussein statue in Baghdad. Whilst that was clearly the venting of anger against a living despot, I remember being thankful that such scenes could never happen here in Britain.

How times change. Edward Colston was clearly no saint but he was part of Bristol’s history, just like the tobacco lords in Glasgow. For me, the mob tearing down of the statue is anarchy, pure and simple, and the non-action of the police inexcusable.

What sort of example does that set the younger generation? Sad times indeed.

David Edgar, Main Street, Symington

Reckless conduct

Thousands of anti-racism campaigners carrying out their democratic right to protest were, according to Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf, “risking the lives of those we are expressing solidarity with” (Your report, 8 June).

I am not sure how far they all travelled, but I would hazard a guess many came from more than five miles away and stood closer together than two metres with more than one other household.

In that case, perhaps some of them should have been charged with culpable and reckless conduct, just as the two people who travelled to Crianlarich last week to climb a hill were.

While I have no medical qualifications, I suspect the risk to the general public of spreading Covid-19 was much greater on Glasgow Green than it was on an empty hillside in the Highlands.

Sadly, I lack any legal qualifications too, but the lack of police action on Glasgow Green suggests that we can risk other people’s lives if there is a good cause involved but not if we are doing something for our own pleasure.

Alan Black, Camus Avenue, Edinburgh

Add varsity

Any proposals being made about students returning to university miss the point entirely.

Distance learning/online lectures and social distancing are inappropriate for young people who are (very) largely only mildly affected by Covid-19. It is only when one reaches a more mature number of years that it is dangerous, unless one has underlying health issues.

University – and college – are crucibles within which the young develop in all aspects of life. It is not simply a degree factory. It is also a way for boy to meet girl and vice-versa. It is a place in which one learns one’s ability to make a case and to argue the toss about just about everything. It is a place in which one may attain a high level in competitive sport or develop a taste for the political fray.

It is not a place for people to hunker down behind a screen and withdraw from life. When I consider some of the downright dangerous jobs I did in my summer vacations, which would be illegal now, I realise that they gave me a good understanding of my capabilities, in much the same way as happened in the other aspects of the varsity experience. Had I missed them I would have missed the greatest and most stimulating times in my threescore years and ten. I would not have missed them for the world.

I would suggest this is the time for the young to say “No.” They must strike out on their own, just as the students in “Les Évènements” in Paris in 1968 did. They may not agree now with what they stood for then, but, by God, they lived life and probably have no regrets.

Peter Hopkins, Morningside Road, Edinburgh

Ill winds?

I read with interest the letter from Ian Moir (8 June) on wind turbines sitting idle for 18 hours a day.

Let me tell your readers that the constraints payments for Sutherland wind farms to date is a staggering £63,475,000. On 22 May £9 million was paid in constraints payments for the whole country for that one day.

We do not need any more wind farms, otherwise we will be paying out even more constraints payments.

Michael Baird, Dornoch Road, Bonar Bridge

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It’s the wrong time to push for independence – Letters

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