Readers' Letters: Labour needs to reflect on plan to tax private school fees

It is becoming increasingly clear as the General Election campaign continues that a key plank of Labour’s manifesto is beginning to unravel. Watching the likes of Yvette Cooper being unable to answer basic questions about the implications for pupils and parents as a result of imposing VAT on private school fees demonstrates the lack of consequential thinking and so the implications of such a policy.

This policy is entirely driven by the politics of envy, with no thought given as to how the state school system will be able to accommodate an influx of pupils from the private school sector. Blasé promises to recruit 6,500 new teachers will take years to achieve – or perhaps the state system will be the next stop for those teachers who will lose their jobs in private schools as a direct result of this policy?

There are times when true leadership has to demonstrate a period of reflection and an open mind to a rethink of one’s proposed actions. I am not convinced Keir Starmer will demonstrate that true leadership.

Loretto School in Musselburgh is just one of the Scottish private schools which would be hit by Labour's VAT plan

Richard Allison, Edinburgh

Very broad church

What does it say about the Labour Party of Keir Starmer that Conservative MPs Dan Poulter (Central Suffolk and North Ipswich), Natalie Elphicke (Dover) and Mark Logan (Bolton North East) can so comfortably be accommodated?

John V Lloyd, Inverkeithing. Fife

Spinning around

Labour has adopted “Change” as its keynote for its election campaign. With Keir Starmer's huge number of U-turns and policy changes, wouldn't “short changed” be more appropriate?

Tim Jackson, Gullane, Scotland

Be interested

To those people who say, with misguided pride, “I am not interested in politics and don’t vote”, I quote the irrepressible US novelist and travel writer Martha Gellhorn: “These people might as well say, I’m not interested in my standard of living, my health, my job, my freedom and my future. If we mean to keep any control over our lives we must be interested in politics”. I would only add that over centuries people have died to secure our right to vote, so please honour them and use it wisely.

It’s now obvious the large unionist parties, totally controlled by the London Establishment, with exaggerated bribes are in fact offering very little change. And with the growing divide between Scotland and England in national and international affairs, Scotland's future will continue to stagnate. It is therefore vital at the General Election that with unity of purpose, Scotland’s voice is heard.

Without doubt, only the SNP will put Scotland’s interests first. It will lead a united Yes campaign, attacking with purpose and honesty the disastrous effects of Brexit, the economic crisis, poverty, climate change etc, and rid Scotland – and indeed, the rest of the UK – of this corrupt and incompetent Conservative government.

Grant Frazer, Newtonmore, Inverness-Shire

Knee-jerk

Some time ago I was in agony with a painful knee and even with the NHS flat out, the waiting time for the required replacement operation was more than a year. In my desperation I elected to cash in some shares in my former company, given to me as part of an early retirement package, and have the op done privately. The relief was immense and every day since I am grateful for the freedom I had to have done what I did. As a bonus, my action took one name off the large NHS waiting list

It seems, however, that Stephen Flynn and the SNP want to do away with any kind of NHS-Private Health sector links, and let those willing and lucky enough to be able to sacrifice life savings to ease their pain continue to suffer.

I am aware Mr Flynn's remarks are merely pre-election froth and very few take anything the SNP says seriously at any time, and he will be very fortunate if he even has a seat after 4 July. What he proposes on health is unworkable but it allows us to see once more the very worst of the SNP in action.

Alexander McKay, Edinburgh

Squandered cash

Membership of the European Union is the lynchpin of the SNP's case for independence. What, therefore, are we to make of yesterday’s report (Scotsman, 3 June) that the SNP is to return £451 million to the EU because they have been too incompetent to spend it? It defies credibility. The Scottish people suffer as they bumble from one fiasco to another but this surely is in the world-leading class, surpassing even the hundreds of millions wasted on ferries.

This is money that could have been spent on economic and anti-poverty projects. Aren't we being told that – after independence of course – these are assigned to page two and three of the SNP's election manifesto? Employment, education, social inclusion. How feckless does a government have to be to pass up the opportunity to spend hundreds of millions on these issues because of “deficiencies in first-level management verification, audit trail”. Sound familiar?

John Swinney claims that "almost all of the outstanding expenditure will be spent". Has he forgotten that €199 million has been handed back already? Or is he being economical with the truth? For once Douglas Ross has got it right. The SNP's motto should be "Squander for Scotland"!

Colin Hamilton, Edinburgh

Missed opportunity

Last week various SNP politicians took to the media to say they were the only party who could take Scotland back into the EU. Ignoring the many high barriers to doing that, we now find that the current SNP administration have failed to spend £450 million from the EU structural fund. That money could have funded infrastructure projects and been used to replace some of the services councils are cutting because of SNP cuts.

Had they used this fund wisely and said “look how good the EU are to us” we might have bought their pro-EU party promotion. Instead the SNP once again choose to be a party of protest and grievance who lack even basic competence in government. If you want competent government and credible opposition, do not vote SNP (or Green or Alba) on 4 July.

SJ Clark, Edinburgh

Defend democracy

It is deeply disturbing to read that Baillie Gifford’s long-established sponsorship of Edinburgh International Book Festival (EIBF), without fear or favour, is ending. The fact that the Book Festival has given in when all authors and all festivals should be championing freedom of expression is particularly perturbing and morally wrong.

Perhaps the protesters know little of 20th-century history. The suborning of power by at first a small group – and attempting to silence the majority – began mid-century in Europe with Kristallnacht and ended in world war. As is said often, if the majority do not speak up against tyranny then democracy ends.

Please EIBF, stand upright and don’t be cowards – for democracy along with us all.

Bill Porteous, St Monans, Fife

Time to go

Alexander McKay says no-one is happier than he is at the implosion within the SNP (Letters, 1 June). I can assure him I am, and there are millions in the same boat as us, as the utterly incompetent SNP MPs will find out in a month’s time.

My homeland has been destroyed over the 17 years the SNP has been in power. Education, the NHS in Scotland (which is entirely under the control of the Scottish Government), local government services, policing and the Scottish Ambulance and Fire Services have all suffered. And the SNP response? “It wisnae me. That big bad Westminster boy did it and ran away.”

Time for everyone who respects Scotland and wants a future for their children to cast a vote for the Conservatives, Labour, the Liberals or even Reform. Anyone but the SNP (or the Greens).

Brian Barbour, Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland

No consistency

Edinburgh City Council has banned adverts for sports utility vehicles and cruise holidays as part of a wide-ranging crackdown on promotion of the fossil fuel industry (your report, 31 May).

The prohibition of adverts from council-owned spaces such as billboards and bus stops also covers airlines, airports, fossil-fuel powered vehicles and arms manufacturers. The council said: “The promotion of high-carbon products is incompatible with net zero objectives.”

Since they are banning adverts from those organisations who create or encourage greenhouse gases they should surely be banning events in Edinburgh and district with a high carbon footprint. Why have they not banned Taylor Swift and other musical events, football and rugby and other sporting events which create hundreds of thousands of tonnes of greenhouse gases every year.

Cowardice or frightened for their taxpayer-funded lifestyle? Perhaps readers could suggest some other ways to reduce Edinburgh's emissions.

Clark Cross, Linlithgow, West Lothian

Stormy weather

Stormy Daniels is reputed to have said that she thinks Donald Trump should spend time in prison, followed by a period of community service.

I agree so long as community service doesn't entail being President of the USA. I'm Biden my time.

Ian Petrie, Edinburgh

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