Readers' letters: Scottish Government too slow to react to concrete warning

It comes as no surprise that the Scottish Government and local councils were warned about the risk of structural collapse in some public buildings over a year ago and did very little about it.

For the fire service to ring the alarm bells in relation to the dangerous nature of RAAC concrete and the threat it posed to buildings like schools (Scotsman, 5 September) should have prompted an urgent response from the government, even one distracted by Sturgeongate and obsessed with the drive towards independence at all costs.

The Westminster Education Secretary Gillian Keegan has grabbed the headlines with her outburst about the inertia of her predecessors in dealing with the RAAC problem, but in many ways it’s irrelevant to Scotland as the buck stops with the First Minister under devolved government.

Humza Yousaf’s assessment that it may take months to identify the extent of the RAAC danger in public buildings suggests that the warnings have been totally ignored in the past and the government is starting the process of a panicked catch-up.

Work is under way at Balbardie Primary School in Bathgate following the discovery of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) in the building (Picture: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

Bob MacDougall, Kippen, Stirling

Chickens roosting

This week’s Tory government fiasco regarding the safety of schools throughout the UK will come as no surprise to anyone.

In the 13 years of their governance can anyone name one aspect of society or industry that it has increased spending on? Has any area of society improved? Has any area of the public sector not suffered budget cuts? This is because, ideologically, Conservatism is purely about cutting public spending to service their obsessional mantra of tax cuts, irrespective of the negative economic forces of Brexit, Covid and energy costs.

Of course, super rich Rishi Sunak tries to convince us that he “gets it”, but as long as they continue to pursue this elitist dogma – and they will – all he will “get” is a humiliation at the next General Election, which cannot come soon enough.

D Mitchell, Edinburgh

Nordic taxes

Several items in the news at the end of last week illustrated the serious problems being experienced by the chronically under-funded English public services. Yet any suggestion that the Scottish Government might increase tax rates or introduce new taxes to improve our public services, is met with scorn.

There is regular criticism of the SNP for suggesting a possible increase in the levels of taxation in Scotland. The question for those who regularly have a go at the Holyrood government for perceived faults in our devolved public services for which Holyrood has responsibility is where is the money coming from to bring about improvements?

There is no magic money tree. If a government does not raise taxes then we need only look to Westminster to see the damage that the three alternatives are causing – the reduction of standards, the privatisation of public services or adding yet more borrowing to our burgeoning national debt, which now stands at an eye-watering £2.3 trillion. This is just part of the Tory legacy that will be passed on to our children and grandchildren.

Surely the experience of our Scandinavian neighbours, all of whom have higher rates of taxation than the UK, should silence the scaremongers. In the Nordic countries, taxation as a percentage of GDP ranges from 42.2 per cent in Norway and 42.6 per cent in Sweden to 46.9 per cent in Denmark, according to OECD figures for 2021. By way of comparison, taxation as a percentage of GDP was 33.5 per cent in the UK. As a consequence, Denmark, Norway and Sweden enjoy a far higher standard of living than we do. They benefit from a suite of public services that are far better funded and deliver at a much higher standard than their UK counterparts. Furthermore, there is nothing like the widening gap between the better off and the worse off that blights the UK. Despite claims to the contrary, the higher tax regimes of the Nordic countries have not seen a mass exodus of wealthy Scandinavians.

Eric Melvin, Edinburgh

Mutual tolerance

John Broomhall’s response to my letter commenting on modern secularism (Letters, 4 September) rests on a logical fallacy – the “you to” fallacy. Rather than addressing the point I have made, he asserts that there are numerous examples of religion imposing its views on others by force. Answering criticism by criticising those who disagree does not advance your argument. Whether or not religion has been driven by intolerance is irrelevant.

He has missed the point of my letter – that secularists rejoice when opposing voices are silenced. We are all part of a common humanity and we all have to deal with the things life throws at us. Religion has given us education of the masses, hospitals, and myriads of charitable organisations. Not only that, it is the basis of numerous daily acts of kindness by individuals throughout our land who believe that there exists something more important than themselves.

There is more than a “surfeit of irony” in Mr Broomhall’s last sentence. He celebrates the removal of religious reps from Edinburgh Council’s education committee so that there is an “opportunity for a wider range of views”. His concluding sentence merely confirms the intolerance that I addressed in my letter.

My challenge to the secularists is this: why cannot we work together in something as important as the education of our children? The physical state of our school estate is a metaphor for the state of our education system. It will not be improved by shutting out any voice with which we disagree.

Eric J Scott, Edinburgh

Uplifting march

The march and rally in Edinburgh on Saturday was a colourful and uplifting sight. To see 25,000 souls meeting for a better future for Scotland fills me with joy and hope. A hope for a fairer, socially more just, and greener future for our people. Self-determination for the Scottish population to redress the democratic deficit that exists under the behind-the-times Westminster system. A future where we can work more closely with the family of European nations within the EU for peace and solutions to our common issues.

While I’m here, some of your correspondents (Letters, 5 September) ought to know that the march was organised not by the SNP, but by two non-party political groups, namely Yes For EU and Believe in Scotland.

The preparations for the march started last year and had nothing to do with recent polls, as suggested by your ill-informed contributors. If only the unionist apologists would, in their own words, “begin to tell the people of this country the truth”.

Peter Glissov, Edinburgh

EU’s importance

How is it that membership of the EU is, seemingly, of the utmost importance for Scotland to achieve any level of prosperity, when a “Yes” vote in 2014 would have resulted in Scotland’s exit from that exact same institution?

The reality of Scotland’s trade situation – pre-Brexit – was that trade with the EU was a very distant third behind trade with England, in the first instance, and, secondly, the rest of the world.

It’s high time the Scottish Government concentrated on promoting what is within its sphere of influence and forgets about grinding out its divisive and fabricated grievances which are a cause of mental health issues for much of the population!

Michael Officer, Bridge of Earn, Perth & Kinross

Bloated state

The UK is spilling over with politicians and civil servants who have little or nothing to do. This is particularly evident in Holyrood where there are 47,000, double the number required pre-devolution.

Parliamentarians and their staff constitute two per cent of the entire workforce in Scotland and has increased over the last three years by 3.5 per cent. And because there is a propensity to build little empire fireproof walls this increase will continue exponentially. Holyrood is aleady a Frankenstein’s monster out of conrol where no one takes responsibility for the economic mess it has made.

Stan Hogarth, Strathaven, South Lanarkshire

Working week

The SNP proposes that Scottish civil servants should work a four-day week. This is an ambitious plan, as they will resist having to work an extra day.

Malcolm Parkin, Kinnesswood, Perth & Kinross

1984 is here

UK politicians and the green brigade are determined to force net zero 2050 on the population by prohibitions, bans and restrictions. People will not be able to buy the car they want, cook with the type of stove they want or eat as much meat as they want. There are even suggestions that people should only be allowed to go abroad on holiday every three years.

Fiction? This week the Government’s controversial Energy Bill will be debated in parliament. It provides for the “creation of criminal offences” where there is “non-compliance with a requirement imposed by or under energy performance regulations”. Those who fail to comply with new energy efficiency rules could face prison. Meanwhile China, India and numerous other countries responsible for 70 per cent of global emissions are ramping up their coal, gas and oil consumption. And here we were thinking that George Orwell’s novel 1984 warning against totalitarianism was a work of fiction.

Clark Cross, Linlithgow, West Lothian

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