Even as a pensioner, I think I might have just enough money laid by to cover such an amazing increase but my heart bleeds for all those young couples who are also having to deal with a rising mortgage and having to feed and clothe their families.

What really amazes me is how our Scottish and UK governments have been stupid enough to allow us to get into such a ludicrous financial state regarding the production of electricity and gas.

Some years ago I remember our Scottish Government closing down and eventually demolishing the Longannet Power Station, which produced electricity for Central Scotland – simply because it was using coal! Our atomic power stations are on their last legs and many of our wind turbines are owned not by Scots but by foreign investors who will no doubt be passing the profits back to their native countries.

While I have never been in favour of nationalisation, I am now forced to consider, that for the good of our nation, all electrical and gas supplies – and their distribution – should be nationalised and the profits put into the public purse.

 Archibald A Lawrie, Kingskettle, Fife

Student quotas

Cameron Wyllie’s article on quotas for students from deprived backgrounds (Scotsman, 6 February) was thought-provoking.

He points out that 555 applicants from across Scotland not considered to be “deprived” did not get in to study law at Edinburgh University. The question should be asked: how many able students from across Scotland did not get into any course at any Scottish university?

The real reason that there is a limit on students attending Scottish universities is that they would get their fees paid. The universities need students from England and abroad to finance the universities so a cap of free university places was put in place.

So in effect, the parents of those in Scotland who were refused a university place paid their taxes so that the university, lecturers and staff could get even more money. The average salary for a lecturer in Scotland is £44,548 per year yet more than 70,000 staff at 150 universities across the UK will strike for 18 days between February and March in disputes over pay, conditions and pensions. Education, education, education? More like money, money, money.

Cl ark Cross, Linlithgow, West Lo thian

Name change

Neil Anderson would like to hear more regional accents represented on the national news and mentions that Scotland has its own news programmes (Letters, 6 February).

It would seem reasonable to expect the newsreaders and reporters on these programmes to pronounce Scottish place names correctly.

It is several years since I left Edinburgh, but when did the area where our national parliament is situated change its name from Holyrood to Hollyrood?

Allan Garden, Fearn, Highland

Salmond’s harvest

Alex Salmond is bemoaning the fact that support for independence has slumped in the past few weeks. He states that “thirty years of building, building, building support for ind ependence" until the figure is over 50 per cent and then “thrown away by some self-indulgent nonsense”.

All I can say Alex is that you know whose self-indulgent nonsense it is and you also know who put her on her throne. You reap what you sow.

Ian Balloch, Grangemouth, Falkirk

Exit strategy

Rod Stewart’s suggestion that the Conservatives make way for a Labour government is not necessarily a call for a general election. In the first half of the 20th century it was not unusual to have a change of government without such an election. Nor was it unknown for the party in government to hold fewer seats than the opposition.

All that Rishi Sunak need do is advise His Majesty to invite Sir Keir Starmer to form a government. Conservative MPs would then abstain except to block an early dissolution of Parliament.

What is there to hold the Prime Minister back? Does he see anything coming down the track which is likely to restore his popularity in the next couple of years? Do the Tories, who have long promoted home "ownership” founded upon debt, really want to be in office during a property price crash? Giving the public this “try before you buy” option on the Labour alternative may be the best hope open to him.

John Riseley, Harrogate, North Yorkshire

Council funding

Jackie Baillie’s claims about local government funding (Scotsman, 7 February) are somewhat contradicted by the official independent Scottish Parliament Information Centre report published last week that showed the proposed Scottish Government revenue allocation to local government increases by 1.3 per cent in real terms compared to the equivalent figure for 2022-23. And that over a ten-year period local government's provisional revenue settlement has increased by 4.3 per cent in real terms.

Since 2013-14 Scottish local authority revenue funding is up by £2.2 billion, which is 22.9 per cent higher compared to a mere 7.3 per cent increase in Labour-run Wales. Also, for example, the latest published accounts show that Edinburgh Council has unallocated reserves of £25 million in this year’s budget.

Labour’s expensive PFI long-term financing is still accounting for ten per cent of education budgets in Scotland and the last Labour government at Westminster sabotaged SNP plans for a local income tax.

The SNP is spending £1.4bn a year mitigating Tory welfare policies, and the Scottish Government’s budget has been effectively cut by ten per cent due to UK inflation caused by successive Westminster governments’ failed energy policies and a disastrous Brexit that Labour has no intention of reversing. Priority has been given to the NHS and opponents need to say which budgets should be cut as, unlike Westminster, our government has limited taxation and borrowing powers.

Fraser Grant, Edinburgh

Brexit slience

Both Conservative and Labour seem terrified to mention Brexit, as they desperately try to make it work. It’s therefore worth remembering the many promises, including £350 million per week for the NHS, made by Leave in the 2016 EU Referendum; none of which have been met. In fact many who backed Leave, on what was a very small majority win, now regret it.

As the third anniversary of actually leaving the EU passes, with a cost of living crisis and a breakdown in public services, the Tory vision of a global Britain has not happened. In truth Brexit has increased food prices, set up trade barriers and created labour shortages. Various London government agencies have reported a shortfall of 300,000 in the UK labour force directly due to the impact of the freedom of movement restrictions.

All of this and more has not only greatly promoted the independence movement in Scotland but also throughout the UK.

Grant Frazer, Newtonmore, Highland

No apology

Richard Walthew attempts to castigate me for my callous indifference to the plight of striking public sector workers (Letters, 6 February), a thoughtless comment compounded by pure assumption on his part that my own life is comfortable and without strain.

I make no apology whatsoever for not joining the woke masses that support public service strikes.

Mr Walthew refuses to consider the impact on the lives of millions of our people caused by these selfish strikes, to say nothing of the potential for actual loss of life in the case of striking NHS workers.

His points would have been more appropriate had they included the current pay bands for the various classes of workers striking for inflation-proof salary increases with no regard whatsoever of economic and social consequence.

I will never empathise with selfish behaviour from people paid from the public purse to do their jobs.

Derek Farmer, Anstruther, Fife

Cupid’s arrow

With St Valentine’s Day next week it reminds me of a story from my days in the up-market hotel trade 30 years back in 1993.

A live-in waiter approached me as I came off duty at 8am and asked me if I could get him a St Valentine’s card for his partner, who was not likely to arise until later. I nipped out, got him a card, returned it, handed it over in an envelope and left to go home.

I came back in at 11pm that night to find him waiting for me outside and he said: “You really caused me bother with your choice of that card!”

Apparently the one I had chosen was identical to the one he’d given his partner the previous year and she’d accused him of being stingy and just recycling it! I had to go and convince his live-in partner who was on late duty on reception that I had indeed bought the card that morning..

As they say, the road to hell can be paved with good intentions.

Andrew Heatlie, Duns, Scottish Borders

In a hole

I watched Liz Truss’s interview and Nicola Sturgeon's press conference on Monday. They have more in common than they'd like to admit and not just disastrous policy-making and inflated, unjustified opinion of themselves: both seem to be devotees of the mantra “when you're in a hole, find the biggest excavator you can find and keep digging”. Till hopefully you disappear from mainstream politics.

Allan Sutherland, Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire

Write to The Scotsman

We welcome your thoughts – NO letters submitted elsewhere, please. Write to [email protected] including name, address and phone number – we won't print full details. Keep letters under 300 words, with no attachments, and avoid 'Letters to the Editor/Readers’ Letters' or similar in your subject line - be specific. If referring to an article, include date, page number and heading.

Subscribe

Subscribe at www.scotsman.com/subscriptions

Readers' letters: Nationalisation is the answer to energy crisis

Comments