Readers' Letters: Scotland must escape shackles of nationalism

Lies, damned lies and statistics could well describe Fraser Grant’snote-0 diatribe against the benefits of the Union (Letters, 4 May). In his book, everything is Westminster's faultnote-1 and long-suffering Scotland is short-changed by the Unionnote-2.
First Minister Humza Yousaf may be about to raise taxes for higher earners (Picture: Peter Summers/Getty Images)First Minister Humza Yousaf may be about to raise taxes for higher earners (Picture: Peter Summers/Getty Images)
First Minister Humza Yousaf may be about to raise taxes for higher earners (Picture: Peter Summers/Getty Images)

In fact, Scotland receives more per capita than anywhere in England. North-east England, the poorest part of the UK, can only look on in envy at how much of a dividend we receive per capita.

Something which is much more representative of the reality of our dilemma in Bonnie Scotland is that we have a Scottish Government run by a man who thinks hiking taxes is a good idea! Humza Yousaf is described in the same edition of The Scotsman as "hinting" at raising taxes for "higher earners".

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These are the very people who are needed to set up and run companies in Scotland. How better, you may ask, to prevent Scotland establishing the entrepreneurial spirit that made us the engine of the Industrial Revolution?

Well, why not tie Scotland's failing administration to the thoroughly incompetent Greens? As Clark Cross says (Letters, same day), the Greens want to destroy the fishing industry. They also want to destroy the alcohol industry, and farming too. To them, the economy is a dirty phrase.

Scotland is at a point when we can shake off the shackles of nationalism and environmental saboteurs. If we fail to do so, we have only ourselves to blame.

Peter Hopkins, Edinburgh

No mention

Fraser Grant seems to have his wires crossed (Letters, 4 May). He accuses me and others, in letters of 2 May, of not understanding the Barnett formula when I, at least, did not mention Barnett.

Mr Grant complains about the Foreign Secretary’s requirement that a UK representative be present when Scottish ministers meet foreign dignitaries. This is not, as he claims, an attempt “to reduce Scotland’s status abroad”. It is a necessary safeguard to prevent SNP ministers from disparaging and undermining the UK and its institutions in discussions with foreigners – something for which the SNP has form.

There was a time when this would have been called treason.

Jill Stephenson, Edinburgh

End of the line

Humza Yousaf states that he will be “hard-headed and realistic” in tackling poverty. So what's the first thing he does after the usual headline-grabbing rant? He trumpets a policy which will throw hundreds and thousands out of work, the very people he intends squeezing for more tax revenues, our fishermen/women. He enthusiastically wants to stop our people earning money from the sea with another crazy, swivel-eyed-cave-dwelling-Green idiotic policy, the “Highly Protected Marine Area”, affecting ten per cent of Scottish waters. This will decimate a huge chunk of our fishing industry.

Yousaf seems to reckon that to tackle poverty we must make more people poor by removing them from the economy; that way everyone will feel more inclusive and happier because more people are in the same poverty boat... or ferry?

Stan Hogarth, Strathaven, South Lanarkshire

Global view

Elizabeth Scott seems to think we should “just buy produce with the Scottish blue and white Saltire label” (Letters, 3 May).

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Indeed? Just? Why? Of course, there are many Scottish products that are extremely good and I buy them whenever I can, but not in an obsessional way. If I want a nice cheese, though, I might buy a Stilton. If I want a nice pie, I might buy a Melton Mowbray pork pie.

Ms Scott seems to think that just buying Scottish products is the way to “make Scotland rich”, but wealth is generated by trade, of course, and we do not exist in a bubble, however much nationalists would wish it so.

Scottish salmon and beef, Tunnock's Teacakes and Scottish shortbread are eaten everywhere, just as Scotch whisky is drunk, and we make money from them all, probably mostly from England, in fact.

Luckily, there is no barbed wire fence between Scotland and England and the English grow all the things that Ms Scott only buys from Scottish farms. They also don't need to be flown halfway across the world to get here.

Even so, she avoids “abroad” for holidays. Well, good luck with that. Having had many months of Scottish temperatures (why don't we get any global warming, by the way?), I can assure her that sunny Spain, France and Greece will be entertaining the Gray household this summer; not Carnoustie or Bute.

Andrew HN Gray, Edinburgh

Pricey circus

King Charles’s personal fortune has been estimated at £1.8 billion. So why is the taxpayer having to pay for the Coronation circus which has moved 29,000 police officers from their normal tasks of protecting the public to protecting one man? Not an ordinary man, of course, but one so special that the people are being asked not only to pledge allegiance to him but to pray for the Almighty's help in protecting him. The cult of personality has indeed reached a new level.

Add in the gold, the diamonds, the archaic regalia and the medieval ritual and you can see why Emily Gray, MD of Ipsos Scotland, has said that “the public mood in Scotland is lukewarm towards the monarchy”.

For many, the Coronation is a richt scunner

William Loneskie, Oxton, Berwickshire

Divine wrong

Is Barry Turner (Letters, 2 May) implying that the elected (non-executive) presidents of say Germany or Eire cannot fulfil the seven state functions he lists? I think they would reject that idea.Better a temporary elected head of state, put there by the electorate, than a permanent unelected monarch who inherits the job with neither qualifications nor popular support.

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Why should one family rule the otherwise democratic UK by some “divine right”?

Steuart Campbell, Edinburgh

Crowning glory?

According to BBC news those protesting about the upcoming Coronation pantomime will be viewed by police as psychologically challenged rather than as criminal activists. However, those festooned head to toe in union flags, offering pledges of allegiance, bowing, kneeling and scraping are perfectly sane.Clearly I’m missing something here.

D Mitchell, Edinburgh

Up for debate

Murdo Fraser believes that a tolerant society is not one where everyone agrees – far from it (Perspective, 3 May). A tolerant society is one where people of a variety of opinions, often deeply clashing, agree to disagree and defend each other’s right to free speech. We are not born with the ability or desire to debate with those with whom we disagree, it is an art and science that must be learned.

Many people have become very disillusioned by some of the things going on in our universities – no-platforming, rescinding invitations to guest speakers, trigger warnings and wokeism generally.

Students are not adequately trained in the tools of rational discussion when they get to university. We owe it to our children to ensure they are better prepared to cope with the social media tsunami, fake news etc.

Every school should have a debating society, and every pupil should be a member and be given the tools and encouraged to use their critical thinking skills to take part, and there should be inter-school debating contests.

Doug Clark, Currie, Midlothian

​Educated mess

My immediate reaction on learning on Tuesday that the £46 million for higher education promised in the budget had been cancelled was that it beggars belief!

Our universities have been the jewels in the crown of Scottish intellectual life since their constitutional endorsement in the Treaty of Union in 1707, and world-leading centres of medical research since the mid-19th century.

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But this reaction only lasted microseconds. The Minister for Further and Higher Education, Graeme Dey, summarised his government's lacklustre attitude to higher education by saying that the U-turn and diminution in funding shouldn't surprise.

I agree. All that has happened is a continuation of the low priority that the SNP gives to higher education. A leopard doesn't change its spots. It only devoted 10 of the 609 numbered paragraphs in its 2013 independence White Paper to universities after independence, five of them a justification of continuing to charge fees to the English, and three about negotiations with London to keep on getting UK research money.

Hugh Pennington, Aberdeen

Cover story

Efforts to spread alarm about the latest offering of Covid-19 offer symptoms of “a general feeling of unhappiness”. It's interesting to note there are also calls for masks to be worn, once again, despite overwhelming evidence they offer no protection.

Should any ill-advised person wish to impose more hysterical nonsense upon the British public, I will happily forward the mask I have for respraying my rusty car to them, with instructions as to how and where they should insert it.

Hamish Hossick, Dundee

Got it Covid

Geoff Moore (Letters, 4 May) makes an interesting point about Long Covid. Whenever a new disease is discovered or invented, many people find that they have it. In some cases it can become quite fashionable, and it gives people something new to talk about.

Malcolm Parkin, Kinnesswood, Kinross

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