Readers' Letters: It's time Scotland had a chance to vote in government that works

How much longer can this pretendy Government hold out at Holyrood? The SNP/Green administration is well past its sell-by date. It is extremely difficult to define any area in which they have actually been successful.

The Scottish Government, now led by First Minister Humza Yousaf, has failed time and again, says reader (Picture: Robert Perry/Getty Images)

We have witnessed the demise of most of the key figures in recent times. Just how competent is the current leadership – uninspirational, I would suggest! It is simply unacceptable that Scotland's electorate has to wait until 2026 for changes to be implemented. Whatever timescale is decided for the people of Scotland to agree on a future administration at Holyrood, there is little doubt that change is absolutely necessary.

Perhaps the answer lies in a Labour/Lib Dem alliance. After all it was a meeting of such minds that initiated the Scottish Executive in 1999.

Robert I G Scott, Northfield, Ceres, Fife

Driven out

Regarding Holyrood proposals that local authorities could be given the power to double council tax rates for second homes, my wife and I bought a modest two-bedroom flat in Pitlochry in 2008 for family use only, and until a few years ago we actually got a 10 per cent reduction on council tax, a reflection on lesser use of council services.

We now prefer to holiday in "bonnie Perthshire" rather than travelling abroad and strongly support the local economy by visiting the restaurants and bars, shops, theatre, golf club, in addition to events such as the Enchanted Forest, Highland Games and Blair Horse Trials. Our continued support will be more than that of many local residents.

Our flat, like many in the area, is all-electric and our heating costs have soared along with the general cost of living. If in addition to these increases we are faced with a doubling of our council tax it may force us and many others to put our properties up for sale.

To continue our holidays in Bonnie Perthshire, is it time to consider a campervan?

G Bonnington, Longniddry, East Lothian

Self-help begins...

Humza Yousaf berates Westminster for high homeowning costs (“Homeowners need more aid from No 10”, 9 September). Mr Yousaf is being short-sighted. If he lowered Scotland's higher Land and Buildings Transaction Tax to that of the levels south of the Border this would help. Self-help, Mr Yousaf.

Gerald Edwards, Glasgow

Pause rate

The Bank of England is at last talking sense as inflation hopefully slows down. The major point is that those aspects that cause inflation do not necessarily react to increases in the bank’s base rate set by the Bank’s monetary policy committee. The present rise in inflation has been caused by the rise in the cost of energy – see the war on Ukraine started by Russian leader Putin; and grain – again down to Mr Putin and his blocking of Ukraine’s wheat exports. Then there are fruit and vegetable elements, attributed to bad weather; and the mortgage factor, look no further than Liz Truss and her Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng. None of these causes react to the Bank Rate. Really, the Bank of England and its governor Andrew Bailey should pause this rate to allow the present increases to be effective. Any further increases in the rate could cause the economy to go into a major recession – and if that were to happen, the Bank of England would certainly struggle to get us out of that one.

James Macintyre, Linlithgow, West Lothian

Cunning plan?

Is the Scottish Government deliberately trying to annoy nearly everyone?Threats to “reform” our distinctive judicial system are opposed by the legal profession, in the same way that B&B proprietors and holiday let owners protest against vindictive new licensing regulations.

Fishermen didn’t welcome proposals to destroy their livelihoods through HPMAs, while Highland and island populations served by totally inadequate transport infrastructure are fobbed off with endless excuses.

This separatist/Green coalition’s vendetta against rural communities continues through punitive legislation designed to effectively terminate the income and jobs generated from grouse shoots and deer-stalking.

Meanwhile, businesses throughout Scotland are out of pocket thanks to Lorna Slater’s DRS shambles, and an underfunded police service runs a pilot scheme to experiment with ending the investigation of petty crime!

Public opinion is overwhelmingly against the Continuity SNP’s GRR Bill, which Humza Yousaf is nevertheless hell-bent on dragging through the courts at taxpayers’ expense.

These same hard-pressed contributors are squeezed as never before because of “progressive” taxation policies to fund fake foreign embassies, special advisers, ministers for independence, well-being economy and ever-increasing social welfare spending.

Maybe Nicola Sturgeon has instructed her successor to lose the next two elections? When she returns as leader they can be in opposition and blame it all on whoever has to clear up this almighty mess.

Martin O’Gorman, Edinburgh

Missing a trick

On Friday night my wife and I watched the very professional demolition of Cyprus by the first Scottish team in almost 30 years to give us real hope of success at the highest levels of international football.

Rather than pay to watch the game we found a free livestream by Cyprus TV on the mobile phone and projected it onto the TV.

At the end of the game we switched to STV only to find they were broadcasting live the Rugby World Cup game between Italy and Namibia.

It's almost enough to make you vote for independence. Or for scrapping Holyrood.

Allan Sutherland, Stonehaven, Aberdeen

Dulling down

Brian Monteith makes the valid point about the First Minister not caring about a wealth tax driving ever more of our brightest and best south of the Border (Perspective, 11 September). Humza Yousaf probably knows that support for indy relies far more upon emotion than intelligence. Thus, the duller we become thanks to both outward migration and our rapidly deteriorating education, the greater the chance of a successful Indyref2.

As ever, the old saw that “we get the government we deserve” remains true. It’s all very sad.

Tim Flinn, Garvald, East Lothian

Wind whoppers

Re: your story “Blades from Scotland's first wind farm sent into storage” (11 September), how absurd. That the ruinously expensive decommissioning was not previously considered shows how ludicrous the whole ever-so-green, subsidy-farming scam really is.

During the recent hot spell wind farms were barely able to supply the National Grid with 2 per cent! How absurd also to hear the wind industry claim they will be “repowering” with “more efficient” blades. Did our mobile phones double or halve in size as they became more efficient? The farcical industry claims that larger turbines are more efficient could not be further from the truth!

Current turbine blades have been tweaked, over many years, to the Nth degree, but the inexorable laws of physics demand that all that can now be done is to make the turbines even larger, even more materials hungry, even more space consuming, even more destructive to our landscapes, even more difficult to recycle, even more damaging, even more unsightly and, with blades that travel in excess of 200mph, even more lethal to wildlife, effectively foisting giant, offshore bird-mincers onto rural communities, onshore.

Never mind “super” turbines, we are being subjected to yet another load of whoppers from the wind industry!

George Herraghty, Lhanbryde, Elgin, Moray

Arrogant SNP

When will those hurling accusations of “hating Scotland” at Tory MP Penny Mordaunt accept that she is criticising the SNP in her weekly demolition of the barrage of nationalist MPs she faces in the House of Commons, and most certainly not our country? It is clear to all but the deliberately blind and deluded that this is the case. To conflate any political party with Scotland requires breathtaking arrogance and the SNP do not lack that.

That Ms Mordaunt has prepared her answers well is simply another example of her professionalism and intellect. Clear, concise, honest answers. I can understand the SNP fury because that kind of honesty and candour is something they rarely, if ever, see from their own.

Try watching a session of SNP ministers answering questions at Holyrood and the difference is startling.

Alexander McKay, Edinburgh

Aim curses

There's an old saying – “buy cheap, buy dear”. So who exactly was praise-seeking Education Secretary Gillian Keegan referring to in her foul-mouthed tirade about the use of cheap Raac concrete in school buildings? Once the air cleared it still wasn't clear who Ms. Keegan was actually criticising. Was it her Tory Party or the Opposition parties? Of course it wasn't. She was blaming “responsible bodies”. These responsible bodies are a mixture of party privatised trusts and local education authorities that were not adequately funded for building new schools or renovated schools.

Raac was used because it was cheaper than proper concrete. If the Education Secretary wishes to curse some more she will have to get in line in a long queue.

Jack Fraser, Musselburgh, East Lothian

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