Both the Scottish Fire Service and Police Scotland have been forced to introduce cuts to personnel and equipment because of reduced funding and there has to come a point when lives will be put at risk due to the emergency services’ inability to cope. The government has certainly a large budget deficit to reduce but it seems that spending on some less important issues is sacrosanct at the expense of other services which have more of an impact on our daily lives.

Bob MacDougall, Kippen, Stirlingshire

Slavery scandal

Firefighters make their way through flood water on the A811 as torrential rain continued on 7 October in Drymen, Stirlingshire (Picture: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

According to anti-slavery charity Unseen, the British care home “industry” is now staffed by “bonded workers” who have been entrapped by gang masters and subjected to brutal exploitation. Case studies have illustrated the suffering of the workers; the consequences for patients can only be imagined.

This particularly horrific example of social, political and moral degeneration is the outcome of Margaret Thatcher’s privatisation of the care service into a profiteering ”industry” in the 1980s. Since then her Westminster political offspring – Tory, Labour and Lib Dem – have collaborated on developing other privatisations which have all but destroyed the concepts of vocation, decency, morale and community within the vital public services of health, care, education and transport. Never mind trying to live down the odium of crimes against humanity perpetrated by the old British Empire – our most vulnerable children, old and disabled people are now, in 2023, in the name of profiteering, accommodated by all Westminster parties – being cared for by modern slaves.

I hope that the Scottish Government will move ahead swiftly to restore the possibility of a truly National Care Service in Scotland.

As an example of Scotland needing our own independent government to reflect our own cultural, social and political values, this latest scandal of Westminster-driven corruption, greed and social disintegration – modern slavery – is surely quite devastating.

Frances McKie, Evanton, Highland

Free lessons

I fear I must adopt the role of a standard grade teacher of, firstly History, and then Modern Studies, to prevent Robert Scott (Letters, 19 October) propagating his threadbare grasp of both subjects to other readers with an interest in “whole truths”.

Firstly he attributes the “disastrous state of the Scottish economy” in 1707 to, primarily, the “transfer of government to London”. He should be aware firstly that the above economic impasse was in no small measure related to the English parliament's thwarting and undermining of the Scots colonial Darien Scheme at its inception and during its operations. It did this economically and militarily. Thereafter, by dint of political opportunism, bribery and defiance of the Scottish people, they seized the chance to incorporate the sovereign Scottish state, thereby securing their back door from French assault and Jacobitism. In league with homegrown traitors it did this not in the spirit of helping out a neighbour but as an exploitative venture soon to be repeated across the globe.

As regards more Modern Studies, Mr Scott’s allusion to “huge annual subsidies” betrays a misunderstanding of the Barnett protocol. Aside from this I suspect, like many amateur economists, he may also suffer from the illusion generated by the annual inaccurate and disingenuous GERS that, contrary to the view of the majority of international economists, an independent Scotland would be one of the poorest in Europe. The concensus is that it would be one of the richest.

This misrepresentation of Scottish history and futurity does nothing to defend the current union or make a useful contribution to our collective cross-party search for our national destiny. However, I celebrate the fact that Mr Scott recognises, like the majority of citizens, that we urgently need a change of government in Holyrood

Andrew Docherty, Jedburgh, Scottish Borders

Holding the baby?

Details published by the Scottish Government and Accounts Commission give a worrying picture of ever-increasing borrowing by Scotland’s councils.

Research shows the flawed decision by the Salmond-led SNP Government in 2008 to freeze council tax, a vital source of council revenue, was made when the debt had risen from £665 million to £1.18 billion that year. Annual borrowing has risen by approximately £1bn; at the end of 2021/22 the combined debt rose to £20.5bn. Councils borrow for capital projects, often via the UK Treasury to build and maintain schools etc, but Scottish Government underfunding has resulted in councils borrowing even more in order to maintain their services.

While the Scottish Government will point the finger at Westminster cutting devolved budgets, the Accounts Commission previously reported that our councils’ borrowing has been treated favourably, when compared to that in England. Current Treasury debt in 2021-22 is around £11bn, and the interest payments over £400m per annum.

Despite record levels of borrowing, there has been a significant decrease in expenditure on our roads, environment, leisure and infrastructure, at the same time as spending on education and social services has increased.

The Scottish Government continues vanity projects, like bus travel for under-22s and baby boxes, when councils are cutting services. Who will deliver the services that will be cut if or when a council goes bankrupt? The Scottish Government will be left holding the baby, but this one will not come in a basket!Scotland cannot afford a government that is fiscally inept.

Alistair McKelvie, Aberdeen

A9 problems

Much has been said over recent months and years about the benefits of dualling the A9 north of Perth, but little has been done.

We drove home from England on Monday and got an advance warning on our satnav of a delay of 30 minutes due to roadworks on the northbound side of the A9 at Dunkeld. We checked the Traffic Scotland page and it suggested a delay of 20 minutes. Several miles south of Dunkeld, while still on the dual carriageway, we joined a queue of stationary traffic which moved forward at a snail's pace until we eventually got through the roadworks approximately an hour and a half later. However, north of the obstruction, the southbound traffic was queuing almost to Ballinluig, a distance of nearly nine miles, and it must have taken some of these vehicles several hours to get through.

This work is scheduled to run until March 2024 and is a complete nightmare for anyone travelling on the A9 and also for residents of Dunkeld and the surrounding area, as drivers try to find a shortcut round the roadworks. Clearly, if the A9 had been dualled, as we were promised years ago, this situation would not have arisen, as northbound traffic would have at least managed to keep moving, albeit slowly, and southbound traffic would have been unaffected.

Kenny Johnston, Fearn, Ross-shire

Trouble ahead

I wholeheartedly agree with the Scottish Government’s plans to ban plastic-containing wet wipes amid concerns they break down into microplastics. Lorna Slater, Scotland’s circular economy minister, says they pose a risk to the environment and wildlife and can be harmful to human health. So true – but has she stopped to consider her beloved wind turbines are shedding microplastics from their blades all over the countryside, contaminating water sources, being picked up by wildlife and livestock which in turn are eaten by humans. This also applies to offshore turbines.

There have been concerns for years about the environmental impact from the erosion of wind turbine blades which are made with fibreglass and epoxy resin. One of the chemicals, Bisphenol A (BNA), has been linked with fertility problems in humans and wildlife yet the Scottish Government has admitted in a Freedom of Information request submitted by a concerned member of the public that “pollution levels of microplastics and BNA in ground water and water sources around Scottish wind power installations are not specifically being measured currently”.

Given the number of wind farms currently operational and in the planning system, this is an environmental disaster waiting to happen, caused by the very things that are meant to be saving the planet.

Aileen Jackson, Scotland Against Spin, Uplawmoor, East Renfrewshire

Well done Nicola

Nicola Sturgeon is to be congratulated on passing her driving test. After her failure to cut NHS waiting times, shrink the attainment gap, tackle Scotland's horrific drug deaths and, likely of most regret to the former SNP leader, multiple futile attempts to stage Indyref2, isn't it super she has at last one achievement of which she can be proud?

Martin Redfern, Melrose, Roxburghshire

Bumpy roads

If Nicola runs her car like she ran her party, we shall all be in for yet more bumps! Look on the bright side. With any luck she will soon have picked up enough points to to be taken out of circulation again.

S R Wild, Edinburgh

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Readers Letters: Government's skewed priorities risks lives

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