Readers' Letters: Inequality is a choice Tories inflicted on UK people

My local food bank is now issuing blankets to users who can eat or heat but not both. The Scottish Ambulance Service say they are rescuing people with hypothermia – not from mountains but living rooms. These facts make the latest statistics from National Records of Scotland easier to grasp – more people died last winter than in the previous 33.

More Scots are being forced to use foodbanks as the cost of living crisis bites (Picture: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

This year a Glasgow University research team proved the austerity programme of David Cameron – net wealth £40 million – caused 335,000 excess deaths across the UK between 2012 and 2019. The UN called Personal Independence Payments to disabled people a violation of human rights, branding them “cruel, inhuman and ideological”. They have yet to comment on Rishi Sunak – net wealth £730m – and his “Back to Work” plan which cuts benefits for the long-term sick and disabled until they become productive. Inequality is a political choice. For our weak and “undeserving” the decision is destitution and early death.

Anyone unconvinced of the natural cruelty of these smiling, plutocratic monsters perhaps missed the alleged remarks reported to the Covid Enquiry: “Just let people die” and “Let the bodies pile up”. Scotland had the chance to escape their sadism in 2014. We blew it.

Fraser McAllister, Musselburgh, East Lothian

Misplaced faith

Stan Grodynski's shroud-waving about Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak is misplaced (Letters, 28 December). Johnson and Truss are out of the picture, and Sunak has stabilised the UK Government. Apparently, we should rate Humza Yousaf, Shona Robison and Michael Matheson higher than these three because the latter were elected by Scottish constituencies and we should “trust in the wisdom of the people of Scotland”. I invite him to regale us with the achievements of these three Scottish ministers.

All he can muster is that they haven’t run up huge debts or sullied their hands with PPE procurement scandals, although Yousaf himself was Minister of Health during the pandemic and Audit Scotland has judged that, in terms of PPE, “The Scottish Government did not fully implement improvements identified as part of the pandemic preparedness exercises”.

As for debt, it is convenient for nationalists to forget how Scotland benefited from furloughing and business support funds provided by Westminster and not by Holyrood. These came at a cost, which is why the UK is in debt – although not to the tune of a country such as Japan.

Mr Grodynski’s faith in the SNP leadership is such that he may be well placed to tell us which foreign governments have asked the SNP/Green administration for advice about its successes, as cabinet minister Mairi McAllan recently assured us, and what these “successes” have been.

Jill Stephenson, Edinburgh

Almost there

At last, I thought, even Stan Grodynski finally acknowledges the “shortcomings” of Yousaf, Robison, Matheson et al. Then, of course, he immediately points the finger at widespread corruption in Westminster. Clearly wicked old Westminster is worse than our lot so that makes everything OK. I wish someone would make him realise most of us up here are more concerned with the devastating financial incompetence and lack of transparency on our own doorstep, a situation which is getting worse all the time.

He also comments on the enormous financial debt the Westminster Government has run up. Between £310 and £410 billion of this debt is a result of public spending to protect UK citizens and businesses during the pandemic. A significant proportion of that was pumped into the Scottish economy. Perhaps Mr Grodynski can enlighten us by explaining how an Independent Scotland in 2020 would have coped with the pandemic without Barnett and those billions from the UK Treasury. And please, don't mention borrowing. Given our putative financial position as a newly independent state in 2020, repayment of that level of debt would have been financially impossible without massively raising taxation and drastically cutting public services. How many of us really want to live in independent bankruptcy?

D Mason, Penicuik, Midlothian

Black hole maths

So, there’s a big black hole amounting to approximately £1.5 billion in the SNP government’s budget. I’m no economist or statistician, and I had to check just exactly what £1.5bn actually is. It’s £1,500 million to you and me, which is a lot of money. Naturally it’s mostly Westminster’s fault, part of the nefarious scheme to torpedo the SNP’s independence plans.

Estimates vary, but I’m reading that the latest cost of the ferry fiasco at Ferguson’s yard could exceed £360m, compared to an initial estimate of £97m. Expectations are that the cost will rise further. This means, if my sums are right, the current overspend of around £260m (and rising) equates to approximately 17 per cent of the £1.5bn. No wonder there’s a big black hole.

One thing we can be sure of is that no-one will bear responsibility for this scandalous Holyrood mismanagement of what should have been a straightforward construction contract. One wonders how many potholes £260m would fill?

Ian McElroy, Thurso, Highland

Equal funds

I appreciate and respect Pamala McDougall’s strongly held beliefs on assisted dying deriving from a long career of nursing. Like her, I welcome the emerging debate on Liam McArthur’s Bill.

However, I must raise an inaccuracy in her letter. It is incorrect to label the campaigns against assisted death as without the financial resources and influence of groups on the other side. The Church of Scotland, the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland and the Scottish Association of Mosques have all been loud in their opposition to the measure. Similarly, The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, which frequently appeared on the BBC condemning Gillian Mackay MSP’s Safe Access Zones Bill and is a frequent visitor to Scottish schools, is highly resourced and has been campaigning against the Bill for some time.

Absolutely, let’s have the debate on the merits of assisted dying. But let’s not use underhanded blows by suggesting the other side are “better funded” or “emotionally charged” in their arguments when that is clearly not the case.

Michael Heffernan, Wishaw, North Lanarkshire

Don’t demonise

It is a matter of great concern when The Scotsman editorial echoes the current, semi-religious hysteria about “climate change” (27 December). Sea levels are not increasing any more now than they were a century ago and giving credibility to a Green MSP does not bode well for a balanced take on issues. These are much more complicated than soundbites by the likes of Greta Thunberg. Destroying our little remaining industry may meet targets set by politicians, but it will not help us meet real targets, such as keeping people warm in cold Scottish winters and powering the increasing needs of a technological age. Better, surely, to focus on stopping Amazon rainforests from burning down and preventing plastics and rubbish clogging up rivers in Indonesia and the Pacific? Better, surely, to stop the Chinese and Indians from polluting the atmosphere?

When we are soon to face winter storms, North Sea energy will be the main source of our heating and lighting. Demonising it isn't sensible.

Peter Hopkins, Edinburgh

Lost cause

Marjorie Ellis Thompson has had a fair go at demolishing Keir Starmer (Letters, 26 December). The Tories must be theoretically down and out, in her opinion. Her letter ends with the increasingly desperate claim that independence is the only answer.

Such devotion to the cause is admirable but one suspects 2023 has seen the final nails entering this particular coffin as scheme after scheme has gone wrong for both the SNP and the Greens. Where is this revival of nationalism going to come from? Alba has shown no sign of progress and there appears to be a void otherwise as none of the thorny issues have even had their surfaces scratched.

Would it not be far more sensible to simply abandon independence as a lost cause and help whoever is in Downing Street to make the whole UK better? Holyrood is rather obviously not working.

Gerald Edwards, Glasgow

Painful truth

Regarding Euan McColm’s article on the Scottish NHS (Perspective, 27 December), there is no doubt the situation is getting grave.

It should be considered an emergency and not only funding shortages, but a number of internal saving measures are required. Waiting for months for an appointment and years for treatment, both for physical and mental diseases, is unacceptable. There is a need to initiate waiting list initiatives in the private sector, which is willing to help, as was done a few years ago. At present the NHS is forcing the waiting patients to go private. This trend is highly annoying and expensive for somebody who has already been contributing from their pay packets all their working life.

Those who are forced to go private need to be compensated, either partly or fully after assessing their need and requirement.

Hasan Beg, Kirkcaldy, Fife

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