Readers' Letters: Scottish Government must back hospitality industry
The recent revelations regarding the struggles of the Scottish hospitality industry following the SNP's budget decisions are alarming. As major venues face the prospect of scaling back operations, we witness a critical turning point that demands immediate government attention.
John Swinney’s administration must acknowledge that a vibrant hospitality sector is essential for our economy. It creates jobs, supports local agriculture and fosters community cohesion. Instead, his policies, characterised by high taxes and insufficient support, appear designed to stifle growth rather than encourage it.
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Hide AdThe SNP’s budget priorities seem skewed, failing to recognise the importance of fostering a diverse economy through support for the hospitality sector. An industry that has shown resilience throughout economic hardships deserves a government that backs its growth rather than places it at risk of decline.


To reinvigorate our economy and restore confidence among business owners, it is imperative our government takes proactive steps. By offering targeted support and reducing burdensome taxation, we can provide the necessary lifeline to sustain our hospitality industry during these challenging times.
We need to harness the potential of our local businesses and enhance Scotland’s cultural appeal. It is time for the Scottish Government to act decisively; they must prioritise the support and recovery of our beloved hospitality sector before it’s too late.
Let us work together to advocate for sustainable policies that truly reflect the vital role of our hospitality workers in shaping both our economy and society.
Alastair Majury, Dunblane, Stirling
Deer life
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Hide AdI was interested in Annie Worsley’s Perspective article “Highlands icon is destroying landscape” (14 December) but wish to pick her up on some of her figures. The best information that we have suggests there are circa 250,000 red deer across the 46 deer management group areas that cover the vast majority of the Highland area, not the 700,000 stated. There may well be 1 million deer in Scotland as a whole, but 750,000+ of these will be in forestry or lowland areas, and indeed, our towns and cities, with the vast majority of these being roe deer.
Deer numbers did not increase in the first half of the 20th century, but in the second half. The Red Deer Commission was set up in conjunction with the Deer Act of 1959, a key function of which was to give red deer some welfare protection. Red deer numbers in the Highlands were decimated after the Second World War because many stalkers had gone away to join the army, and rationing limited access to meat from other sources. Deer were readily taken advantage off by local communities, but the welfare implications of this were not good, and the new legislation gave them protection. It also gave crofters and farmers the flexibility they needed to protect their crops and grassland legally, something which was strengthened again in 1996.
It is worth noting that the area counted by Frank Fraser Darling was circa 3.5 million acres, while the area commonly regarded as the red deer range today is 3.5m hectares, that is, deer have spread over a much larger area, aided in part, yes, by increased protection, but also by the planting of 2m acres of trees since 1970 which then became perfect deer holding habitat, and the vast reduction of sheep grazing in the Highlands (a reduction of more than a million since 2005).
The important thing about the article, however, is that Ms Worsley has been able to co-operate with her neighbours to protect their most important ground, and that they are benefiting from that.
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Hide AdWhether you protect your wider interests by shooting or fencing depends on local circumstances and capacity, and it is up to people to make their own choice about how best to do that. If we are measuring the health of our landscapes by the amount of trees in them, then compare landscapes today to the photographs of those areas a century ago. We have more trees now in more areas than then, including more native and mixed woodland, but the open hill vistas we associate with Scotland are also valuable in our landscape as well, many of which have been that way for 5,000 years or more.
Evolution, not revolution, of our landscape will give us a better result for everyone in the long term, whatever objectives people might have.
Victor Clements, Native Woodland Advice, Aberfeldy, Perthshire
Not all bad
As another year stumbles to a close, it has been dominated by what appears to be relentless bleakness on a global stage. Conflict in the Middle East and Ukraine, as well as a continuing cost-of-living crisis on our own shores.
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Hide AdHowever, there have been many positives to come out of 2024, which have perhaps not grabbed the headlines.
New medical breakthroughs included the delivery of a new era of treatment for schizophrenic illnesses, with the approval of the drug KarXT. And groundbreaking medical trials, like the world’s first mRNA lung cancer vaccine, offered a glimpse into a healthier future.
In the UK, renewable power overtook fossil fuel generation for the first time, and Norway became the first country in the world where electric cars outnumbered petrol cars.
Greece legalised same-sex marriage and adoption, becoming the first Orthodox Christian country to do so, and 642 million people voted in India’s general election, setting the record for the world’s largest election.
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Hide AdMeanwhile, the Paris Summer Olympics dazzled the world with extraordinary athletic performances, and the San Marino football team, who had previously never won a competitive match, won not one, but two.
In what may look to be a doom-laden year, spare a moment to reflect on the many positives.
Alex Orr, Edinburgh
Not so great
Attempting to provide outlandish separatist claims with a thin veneer of credibility, Mary Thomas uses highly selective material from sources such as the House of Commons Library.
Ms Thomas (Letters, 13 December) eagerly quotes an EY ITEM Club think-tank report suggesting that last year Scotland apparently won 142 foreign direct investment projects, double the rate of UK increase. Conveniently perhaps, no monetary value for these DFIs is given. On the strength of this, she then goes on to boast that “Scotland under the SNP has become the most attractive place for foreign investment outside London and the south-east”.
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Hide AdForeign direct investment statistics published in the oft-quoted House of Commons Library tell a different story. Figures for 2021 (the most recent available) show that: “Scotland had the highest rate of disinvestment of all UK countries and regions. Five out of twelve experienced positive inward investment flows, whilst seven experienced net disinvestment. Scotland had the highest disinvestment rate, at -£18.2 billion.”
As to Ms Thomas’s assertion that “progressive” tax policies up here provide so-called “far better public services”, no supporting evidence is offered. Higher state spending per capita north of the Border is made possible courtesy of the Barnett Formula.
Martin O’Gorman, Edinburgh
Bright future
Jack Watt (Letters, 16 December) fails to appreciate that the SNP stands for self government for Scotland, just like the other normal 193 members of the United Nations, most of whom co-operate with others on trade etc. Scotland is the only part of the UK to have a balance of trade surplus, it is not only able to feed all its own population, it also has a healthy fuel and power surplus with plenty to export.
Based on GDP, Scotland is one of the richest countries in the world and would be welcomed in the EU, or failing that, EFTA, while the Labour Party refuses to accept Brexit is one of main reasons the UK economy is stagnating and Sir Keir Starmer is opposed to freedom of movement or access to the single market as he panders to Reform's isolationist policies.
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Hide AdThe fact that as much oil and gas has been extracted from Scotland’s territorial waters as in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea should not be lost on Sir Keir Starmer when he seeks an energy deal with independent Norway (your report, 16 December), while pouring billions of pounds into the North of England but ignoring the much better grounds for a carbon capture hub at Peterhead, in which Grangemouth would be an integral part.
As for paying a share of Westminster’s National Debt, does Mr Watt think Scotland should also get a pro rata share of the UK’s assets in exchange?
With a highly educated population, all we need to match the prosperity of Denmark, Finland, Ireland or Norway with Independence is the right economic policies.
Fraser Grant, Edinburgh
Don’t panic, plan
Doing the rounds on social media at the moment is an illustration of the biblical story of Noah and his planning for severe climate change, which he knew was on the way. He used his innate skills as a human being to devise a way to adjust to the coming changes, having accepted they were inevitable. This may be legend, but there is guidance there for all decision-makers in the 2020s
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Hide AdRather than taxing the developed world until the pips squeak and handing astronomical amounts of cash to the developing world to cope with climate change, why do we not follow Noah's example and thoroughly prepare for what is coming? It will cost infinitely less.
Alexander McKay, Edinburgh
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