Readers Letters: It's almost as if both SNP and Labour are fine with bus firm leaving Scotland

Brian Wilson's article on the Alexander Dennis bus maker firm shambles (Perspective, 14 June) shows once more that when it comes to saving strategic industries, the SNP don't have the wit and guile to find a solution, or willingness to engage outside help such as the UK Government to cut a long-

But what of Labour? Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham bought 150 buses from Alexander Dennis in Falkirk, and even visited the factory in 2023. Where was Scottish Labour Leader Anas Sarwar and Secretary of State for Scotland Ian Murray then – or indeed, last September when the consultation was announced? That's when they should have been lobbying and haggling with the SNP and Alexander Dennis, not last week. Heaven forbid Scottish Labour are pursuing their own scorched earth policy so the only solution will be to vote Labour in 2026. Because if they are, they're handing Reform an open goal.

Allan Sutherland, Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire

Up to 400 jobs are at risk after bus manufacturer Alexander Dennis announced plans to move operations from Falkirk and Larbert to Scarborough (Picture: Michael Gillen)

Recipe for decline

It’s taken 18 years for the SNP to decide that the Scottish public sector, 30 per cent larger than that of England relatively and employing 590,000 workers, needs slimming down (Editorial, 17 June). John Swinney has promised job cuts but no compulsory redundancies. Unions are concerned and frontline workers must be protected. There are still huge shortages in key roles so retraining should be part of any package.

It hasn’t helped that the SNP has just awarded inflation-busting pay increases to many public sector workers, a move bound to take a toll on jobs. Why now, though, so close to an election? There are three reasons. The first is the SNP sees reducing waste as a vote winner, it’s popular among the electorate and one reason Reform tops UK polling.

The second is that the public sector has put on 30,000 jobs since the start of Covid and is bloated and far from efficient.

The third is, as you state. it’s “a long process”. By the time cuts come it will be after the election, giving the SNP an excuse to drag them out and potentially water them down after consultation with the unions and Cosla.

It is difficult to see a party stuck in continuity politics making any meaningful change. The over-generous welfare system, including a promised higher winter fuel package better than the rest of the UK, will continue to attract a disproportionate number of retired people to Scotland and the tax system that penalises higher-paid jobs will continue to deter many skilled workers from coming. It is a recipe for terminal decline and needs addressing urgently.

Neil Anderson, Edinburgh

Help teachers

Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth has published the Scottish Government's national guidance on how to tackle escalating levels of bad behaviour and classroom violence (your report, 18 June).

Why has it taken so long for the SNP to say they will act, since teachers have been asking for help for far too many years but were ignored, with the result that teachers left or retired early. These disruptive pupils should not be allowed to hinder them in achieving their full potential. These disruptors need to be taken out of class and put into specialist facilities with specialist staff. This will require additional finance.

Where will this come from? Easy, the Scottish Government needs to stop spending money on its army of spin doctors, special advisors, equity, diversity and inclusion staff, climate change committees, quangos and lots more and spend it on education. A report last month revealed that the Scottish Government spends an estimated £6.6 billion funding quangos every year. The SNP always talk a good game but always fail abysmally in practice.

Clark Cross, Linlithgow, West Lothian

Wasted efforts

John Swinney is expected to tell the converted at the next nationalist conference that “independence is within reach”. He has little choice but to take up that stance as the plan to show years of efficient and competent stewardship of a devolved Scotland and then present their case to the electorate has long gone.

So, we will be back to the old chestnuts and phrases. I can recall the “Free by '93” campaign in the early 1990s, and some – I remember “it's within our grasp” – well before that. Each one a failure. Each one not thought-through and having no remotely believable projections.

I fear this campaign will go the same way as all the others and I wish instead they would concentrate on the horrendous and very real problems that do beset Scotland.

Alexander McKay, Edinburgh

Fault lines

One could be forgiven, on reading recent letters (18 June), for thinking the SNP was running an independent Scottish Government.

No mention of the high levels of child poverty across the UK with despicable levels of inequality in the world’s sixth-largest economy which has somehow accumulated £3 trillion of debt with annual interest at over £100 billion. This “interest” is equivalent to double the Scottish Government’s annual budget and five times the spending on Scotland’s NHS.

Of course, the Scottish Government has made mistakes and could have, certainly in retrospect, made better decisions, but accusing it of economic “incompetence” without any UK context is akin to blaming Nicola Sturgeon for the UK’s withdrawal from the EU. While poverty levels are lower, the NHS is performing better and more school-leavers are reaching positive destinations, there is still much more for the Scottish Government to do if Scotland is to emulate the successes of our north European neighbours. The pivotal question, though, is whether the Scottish Government can achieve this within an unequal and failing Union that is wedded to Brexit?

Even before the UK left the EU, Scotland had suffered decades of infrastructure underinvestment in spite of burgeoning oil and gas revenues, while the south east of this island repeatedly benefited from massive investments. Both the Labour and Tory parties now admit that “Britain is broken”, but none of Wednesday’s letters criticising the SNP and the move to independence tells us how Britain is going to be “fixed”.

Independence will not provide a “magic wand” but it will focus the minds and efforts of all politicians in all political parties on building a better country for all of the people of Scotland.

Stan Grodynski, Longniddry, East Lothian

Overconfident

Keir Starmer said he was confident Donald Trump would not pull out of the nuclear submarine deal between the UK, US and Australia, despite Trump's decision to review it.

Keir Starmer was confident he could stop hundreds of illegal immigrants crossing the channel daily. More than 1,100 migrants arrived in the UK after crossing the English Channel on Saturday 31 May, the highest number recorded on a single day so far in 2025.

Keir Starmer was confident he could fix the NHS. A staggering six million people are currently on waiting lists.

Keir Starmer was confident he could improve trade with Europe. EU fishermen will shortly be bottom-dredging our fishing grounds.

Keir Starmer was confident he could solve our country's financial problems. Currently the National Debt costs us roughly £274 million a day in interest payments.

Woody Allen was right: confidence is what you have before you understand the problem.

Doug Clark, Currie, Midlothian

One winner

In the shocking scandal over grooming gangs, neither the Conservatives nor Labour come out of it well. Sadly, it looks like the Reform party could be the political winner in this disgraceful episode, another example of Britain not working!

William Ballantine, Bo'ness, West Lothian

Past-it President

We are right to be concerned about Donald Trump's health (your report, 18 June). Keir Starmer does no one, least of all, Donald Trump himself, any favours by covering up for him, both in words and actions. Too much time and energy is spent on humouring his fragile ego and growing self delusion. The military parade fiasco last week, on his 79th birthday, was little more than an exercise in his dictatorial aspirations and received the paltry crowd it deserved.

Far more serious, in world terms, is his childish demand for the unconditional surrender by Iran to Israel. Benjamin Netanyahu must be rubbing in hands in glee. Trump himself said he wanted much more than a ceasefire as he escaped the G7 summit a day early.

Ironically, Trump mocks his predecessor, Joe Biden, cruelly nicknaming him “sleepy Joe”. Anyone with a smidgen of self awareness would look at himself in the mirror, and reflect that he's not just past his prime, but also past his sell-by date. Someone should tell him.

Ian Petrie, Edinburgh

Words fail me

Joyous news arrives stating that Gaelic and Scots will have official status as languages in my homeland (your report, 18 June). This will allow “ministers to focus grant funding in areas where the language is most fragile”.

That this area covers 98 per cent of Scotland makes me think, in my best Scots lingo, “that yon big money tree has haud a right guit wallopin cos ool need thoosands if no billions fir Embra oan its ain”!

D Millar, Lauder, Scottish Borders

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