Nats have shown their true colours

I AM sure the UK government will be mindful of the “sovereign decision of the Scottish people” to remain part of the United Kingdom. That decision means they must ensure that the integrity of the UK must not be compromised by the powers that are given to the Scottish Parliament.

The Scottish people were not fooled by the SNP’s claims. Indeed, their claim, for example, about the oil price is shown to be wildly optimistic by the present figure of $88 a barrel, which is vastly less than they promised.

The people of Scotland realise that the SNP are not interested in Scotland’s prosperity, but only with controlling the levers of power for their own ends. Finance secretary John Swinney has shown them in their true colours with his property tax which will hit those he perceives (probably correctly) as being the ones who overwhelmingly voted No. They are the people whose houses fall into the £250,000-plus category.

When they decide on the powers that the Scottish Parliament is given, the UK government must ensure that they are sufficiently limited so as not to allow Nicola Sturgeon, or her colleagues, to suggest that gives them the right to declare independence.

The Scottish people voted by a significant margin to remain British and the UK government, which is our ultimate protection against the extremism, must remain mindful of that.

ANDREW HN GRAY

Craiglea Drive

Edinburgh

ALREADY groans from the super-rich about the levels of stamp duty imposed by Scotland’s finance minister in the first piece of fiscal regulation from a Scottish parliament since before the 1707 Union.

Considering it is a widely held belief that some of those who passed for the super-rich then were responsible for the enactment of the Union in the first place, perhaps a wee bit of poetic justice is done.

While not saying nor implying that Mr Swinney had any such historical payback in mind, isn’t it a bit rich (that word again!) that anybody in the frame for buying a mansion for a million pounds plus should squeal about victimisation, particularly over measures intended to assist first-time home buyers whose financial frame is around the £150k mark, and even this is difficult for them.

IAN JOHNSTONE

Forman Drive

Peterhead

When will the Yes campaigners give up their not so hidden desire to turn Scotland into a wee socialist republic where everything is fair and equal…I think that experiment was tried in other parts of the world and failed.

I started near the bottom of the pile, like most in Britain after the war: no running water, no gas, no electricity, outside toilet, just a fire for our mother to cook on and the same fire to heat the two rooms we lived in.

So when I say inequality is an absolutely essential ingredient to the improvement of the human race, I talk from experience. Now in my seventies, it is galling to hear would-be finance ministers (eg, Jonathan Gordon, Letters, 11 October) rattle on about progressive taxation as if taking more of my money and giving to those who refuse to work or to people who have children is clever. It is not. They won’t thank you, they’ll just ask for more handouts.

I’ve worked all my life to get what I’ve got, and I’m still working. To suggest I should give more to some undeserving layabout is, well, upsetting.

However, now John Swinney has set out his stall, it is clear that should he get his hands on the income tax “levers”, we will suffer at the altar of redistributive taxation like never before.

STAN HOGARTH

Palmerston Place

Edinburgh