Readers’ Letters: Forget £100 for fuel, here's how to really help seniors this winter
This week I received a letter from the SNP in which they told me, “Scotland is energy rich, generating more electricity than it needs. So why should older people be suffering in the cold this winter?
I agree entirely with that. So, here's an idea for First Minister John Swinney.
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Hide AdWithdraw the £100 winter fuel allowance for pensioners (which will be worthless with the proposed council tax increase) and instead give pensioners free electricity. He would end the suffering at a stroke and as it's excess energy it can be used to benefit Scotland's pensioners.


The money saved by not “giving” pensioners £100 can go towards a more worthy cause – it shouldn't be difficult to find one.
Bruce Proctor, Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire
Austerity ended?
The country got the opportunity in 2024 to vote in a Westminster parliamentary election. Voters were urged to vote for “change”, a change that would see the Conservatives removed from government and a Labour government taking office for the first time in 14 years.
So, what has changed since 4 July 2024, election day? The popularity of the Labour Party has plummeted, according to a recent opinion poll, with a decrease in Labour votes by more than a third.
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Hide AdWhat has gone wrong, or were voters duped? Well, despite the Labour leader in Scotland, Anas Sarwar, telling the Holyrood Chamber at First Minister’s Questions this week that under the new Labour Government at Westminster “austerity has ended”, voters know and are experiencing a very different reality.
Mr Sarwar’s interpretation of austerity must differ from the reality on the ground, just take the leaving of pensioners out in the cold by the removal of the Winter Fuel Payment, and putting jobs at risk by increasing employers NI contributions.
If Mr Sarwar genuinely believes that austerity should end, then I truly expect to see him and his MSP colleagues vote for the SNP Budget which addresses child poverty and austerity by abolishing the two-child benefit cap in Scotland.
Catriona C Clark, Banknock, Falkirk
Let’s refocus
TheScottish Budget has sparked serious concerns about its potential to foster genuine economic growth. As reported, critics have warned that the SNP’s spending plans may inadvertently exacerbate a culture of dependency rather than stimulate the very growth our economy desperately needs.
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Hide AdWinston Churchill once declared, “To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.” This wisdom underscores the need for our government to rethink its approach to economic strategy. The current budget fails to promote the necessary efficiencies and instead seems to endorse an unsustainable trajectory, effectively slowing down the engine of economic progress in Scotland. By focusing on increased spending without a clear vision of fostering independence among citizens, the government risks undermining the long-term prosperity of Scotland’s families and businesses. We need a budget that paves the way for innovation, supports infrastructure development, and incentivises hard work while also safeguarding the interests of taxpayers.
Alastair Majury, Dunblane
No respect
On his visit to Edinburgh in the days following the general election Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer made a pledge that his government would show Scotland “more respect” than we had received from the government in London previously.
What part of “more respect” is his government's plans to work in policy areas in Scotland whether they are “devolved or not”?
I do not consider a plan to ride roughshod over our democratically elected Scottish Government respectful. The only way Scotland will gain respect from the government in London is for us to break free from the toxic union. We will see respect from them when we have something they want and they can no longer just take it from us.
Ni Holmes, St Andrews, Fife
On balance
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Hide AdI must thank Jim Finlayson (Letters, 6 December) for giving me a good laugh. He claims that Scotland’s “vast export activities... support sterling on the world currency markets” and that much of Whitehall’s borrowing would be “unsustainable without them”. And he manages to say all this without citing a single piece of evidence. He claims that nameless “economists” support his view. Perhaps he could furnish some names?
So let us consider a few facts. In terms of the balance of trade, since 1998 (at least), Scotland’s imports have, in money terms, outstripped Scotland’s exports. Second, 61 per cent of Scotland’s exports go to the rest of the UK, not Europe or the world. Third, the value of Scotland’s economic output (GDP) in 2022 was 7.5 per cent, while its population share was 8.2 per cent.
The UK has a larger debt than is comfortable – no-one would deny that. It does not, however, figure among the most indebted countries, which include Japan, China, the US, Greece and, surprisingly, Singapore. European countries with high levels of debt include Italy, France, Portugal, Spain and Belgium.
Perhaps Mr Finlayson can tell us who bridged the gap last year caused by Scotland’s fiscal deficit, at 10.4 per cent – compared with the UK’s 4.5 per cent? Funnily enough it was his bogeyman, the UK. To the tune of £22 billion.
Jill Stephenson, Edinburgh
Investment needed
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Hide AdIf further evidence was required that a separated Scotland operating on its own would be an absolute disaster, the latest SNP Budget provides it.
They have become inured to spending huge chunks of their slice of the UK cake on “prestige” projects and then complaining they never get enough. Very few people believe they could handle making the tough decisions that are required to make the economy grow. Making a vastly swollen public sector even bigger will make things decidedly worse.
They should be concentrating on encouraging businesses to come and invest, rather than frightening them off. Then better benefits could be paid from the resultant bonanza, not by the tired mantra of robbing slightly better-off Peter to pay Paul while the image in the mind of most is of SNP representatives traipsing off to the next Golf Championship or big football game in their chauffeured limousines to hold “crucial meetings”.
Alexander McKay, Edinburgh
Manners please
As it seems that bad manners are now sufficiently widespread that we comment approvingly on good manners – should we be concerned about a Manners Bypass Syndrome? For example, pavements populated by some entitled people who do not stand aside to allow others to pass them safely; and of course, those so engrossed in their mobile phones that they fail to notice anyone else. Could it be that the courses for social influencers, advertised on local buses, teach this behaviour?
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Hide AdMost of my favourite people display a modicum of Tongue-in-Cheek Syndrome. Many are self-styled Grumpy Old Women and Men.
I suspect there is no medical cure for these syndromes – thank goodness – but a little awareness may be useful.
Moyra Forrest, Edinburgh
Security first
Sarah McIntosh, managing director of Muirhall Energy, writes (Perspective, 5 December), “Break the logjam blocking a £9bn renewables boom”.
With the dangerous turmoil throughout the world today we trust that governments, politicians and the Ministry of Defence will always put our national and international security interests above the desperate pleadings of a commercial wind farm developer, ever eager to make even more profits out of our unspoilt rural landscapes. After all, the protected area around the Eskdalemuir facility is a relatively small area of the UK when put in the context of world security.
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Hide AdMs McIntosh claims that if all these proposed wind farms were given the green light this “would improve lives and communities for generations to come”. This must be a personal opinion because if she was to read the many responses from residents and communities to her company’s wind farm applications then it should be pretty obvious that this is not a universally held view!
If you were to substitute “ruin” for “improve” this would be a more accurate majority view.
Pat Douglas, Secretary of Teviot Landscape Conservation Group, Hawick, Scottish Borders
Life goals
The Football Association is dealing with uncertainty over religious and/or LGBT-inclusive messages on armbands, with some players sporting the former and others pointedly eschewing the latter.
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Hide AdIt is not for secular campaigners to dictate FA policy but one thing is very clear: there is no parity whatsoever between the choice to follow one of many religious beliefs and someone’s immutable identity as LGBT.
We hope the FA will bear this in mind as it sorts its priorities.
Neil Barber, Edinburgh Secular Society
Left right?
Interesting photograph in the 3 December Scotsman. The article is about SQA exams and the photograph shows ten students at their desks and they all appear to be left handed. Surely this is a “sinister” situation.
E Findlay, Edinburgh
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