Readers' Letters: Public will see Farage's election call for the stunt it is

Reform UK’s Nigel Farage has asked the people of Clacton to vote on a referendum to back his political integrity as leader of a crusade against the Establishment. He has three problems.

Firstly, it’s not up to the people of Clacton to decide whether Farage has broken parliamentary rules by failing to declare gifts and whether he was right to take £5 million from a wealthy friend and favours from a convicted fraudster. Clacton can send a signal but the rest of the country is not going to listen.

Secondly, if he wants to “stick two fingers up” to the Establishment then he will be swearing against himself as there is no more of an Establishment figure than a privately educated former stockbroker who has a property portfolio worth an estimated £4 million. His behaviour is closer to Peter Mandelson’s, by befriending richer men, in this case a crypto billionaire and a fraudulent financier whose mother dated the King. Not the actions of an anti-Establishment figure.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage was in Frinton-on-Sea, Essex, yesterday, speaking to members of the public ahead of the by election he says he wants (Picture: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

Thirdly, if he wins the by-election, which he will, he is likely to face another one a few weeks later if found guilty by the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner. Brenda from Bristol famously said, “You’re joking – not another one” about the 2017 election. The people of Clacton would think the same if they are asked to vote for him three times in two years. A low turnout would suggest Clacton does not care about an angry Farage so the gamble would leave his leadership in peril.

Many will see this stunt for what it is, a kneejerk reaction by a thin-skinned paranoid egoist who wants to protect his reputation at any cost. Farage’s days as Reform leader are numbered.

Neil Anderson, Edinburgh

Bring on Binface

Nigel Farage claims it is none of the public’s business that he has received gifts of millions of pounds as well as the use of palatial London homes from a Thailand-based tax exile and a convicted fraudster.

So why does he feel that the vindication of the Clacton electorate is all he needs to legitimise such shady dealings? For someone so keen on becoming prime minister surely the rest of the UK electorate’s opinion may be slightly important? However, with none of the major parties willing to become involved in his childish games, it has already descended into farce.

So step forward Count Binface. The vast majority of decent people in the UK are right behind you!

D Mitchell, Doune, Perthshire

Virtuous circle

Richard Allison makes important points about the proposed new council tax bands aka the “mansion tax” (Letters, 8 July).

Sadly, Deputy First Minister Jenny Gilruth repeats the mantra for new tax bands that “it is only right the broadest shoulders pay a bit more”, ignoring the fact that the top 1 per cent of those very shoulders already pay 27 per cent of all Income Tax, but may still be expected to find an extra £300 a month for Council Tax when they get nothing more from the service than perhaps multiple earners living in houses not affected by the proposed changes. Three-hundred pounds or more a month is not just “a bit more”.

The tax higher multiplier will also apply to water and sewerage charges. A double whammy, and one that is conveniently omitted from the Scottish government’s current consultation.

It is as though politicians think the better off can shake their personal magic money tree and pay significantly more in tax. Slowly but surely, as we load the broadest shoulders with more, they will break – and we will all be worse off as a result.

If only the ingenuity applied to finding new ways to raise more tax from us all was applied to spending our money more effectively, or heaven forbid, cutting tax to help grow the economy. As has often been said, we cannot tax our way to growth (despite what the Greens believe). The way to grow the economy is to reduce tax to encourage entrepreneurship and job creation – which is a virtuous circle – providing jobs, making people less dependant on welfare and providing extra tax revenue to help those in need.

As for Council Tax, we need to get back to a position where councils and Scottish Water are required to cap increases at the Consumer Price Index. This protects their income in real terms but protects the taxpayer from some of the savage increases we have seen over recent years by councillors who also think council tax payers have magic money trees.

Brian Barbour, Haddington, East Lothian

Heavy price

Yesterday’s editorial (8 July) hits the nail on the head re: the state of the Scottish government-run NHS. That is to say, the SNP-run NHS.

The final sentence, relating to all the excuses made by the SNP, says: “and as long as these remain effective lullabies for a slumbering nation, that’s unlikely to change”. I must say, I would struggle to beat that, even with the odd expletive.

Much of the problem lies with the fact 90 per cent of SNP MSPs are people who have never done a day’s work in the real world, with consequences of failure or underachievement. In fact, failure is rewarded with a move to discombobulating ministerial positions, and on and on it goes.

Months ago, I stated we would pay a heavy price should this party, supported by those on huge benefits and the wealthy retired middle class, and the ridiculous voting system, be returned to power.

Well, you reap what you sow. Another five years of this destruction of Scotland and hell mend those who voted for them – in particular the wealthy retired middle classes who wish for a “tartan Utopia” in their lifetime. And regarding those on benefits, you can’t vote against the government which keeps you out of work and living rent-free generation after generation – don’t bite the hand that feeds you.

Voting this lot in again exceeds the stupidity of even the Welsh, who finally got rid of Mark Drakeford’s mad Labour junta, the only other party in Europe to match the lunacy of the SNP.

It really is “a long way, to Tipperary”!

David Millar, Lauder, Scottish Borders

It’s not just Labour

Brian Monteith's Perspective article on Tuesday (7 July) caught my eye. I regularly find myself wondering if, on completing his pieces, he ever reads them; if he does, he would surely have had second thoughts about allowing this one to be published.

If ever there was an example of memory loss, bluster and hubris, this was it. I am not an avid reader of Mr Monteith's articles, but it soon became obvious where his logical sympathies lie.

He begins by castigating the Parliamentary Labour Party for lack of loyalty and fear for their jobs by not calling an election following Keir Starmer's resignation.

As I have already stated, I don't follow Brian Monteith closely, but I doubt if he called for an election when David Cameron led us out of Europe and got sacked, or when Theresa May couldn't get Brexit done and was fired, or when Boris Johnson partied through Covid, or when Liz Truss crashed the economy in record time. (I tried to recall what Rishi Sunak did but eventually decided he did nothing!)

Did the Tories, when dispensing with the services of five prime ministers between 2016 and 2024, allow the electorate to “to hear what competing parties had to offer and establish what the public believed was possible and bearable”?

I think not.

Ronnie Gray, Thurso, Highland

F uture awaits

Presently there is much debate about the efficacy of standalone data centres which generate large amounts of heat. Yet data centres could be crucial to our future energy economy if instead of standalone they are integrated into new infrastructure systems and heat networks for our towns.

A rethink and redesign of our energy-generating and delivery systems to develop affordable district heating is urgently required to take advantage of future computer-driven economic development.

Edinburgh already has a well-established working district heating system in parts of the University. This could be greatly expanded to encompass most of the city, to utilise waste heat for energy-efficient homes and buildings from the construction of at least one large city-based community-owned new data centre.

A working partnership between government, the financial community, engineering industry and academia to utilise the new technologies derived from data centres is needed to generate a new prosperous 21st-century economy in Scotland.

Edinburgh has the people, the facilities and the expertise to be the model for this new technologically driven future – so when might one hope for action?

Elizabeth Marshall, Edinburgh

Named fossils

Further to the letter by Charles Lowson (8 July) place names are linguistic fossils. Craigentinny ("the rock of the fox”) in Edinburgh and Ardentinny (“the high point of the fox”) in the West, Gullane (“shoulder”) and Bass Rock (“forehead”) are all Gaelic names.

The original language of Scotland is not English, Scots or Gaelic but Brythonic or Old Welsh.

Colin McAllister, St Andrews, Fife

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