Readers' Letters: SNP government is reason people of Scotland feel let down

With UK a 'declining state', Scotland's young generation knows independence is the answer, John Swinney wrote in The Scotsman (Picture: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

I'm sure I am not the only one to have read John Swinney's piece in yesterday’s Scotsman (18 September) in total amazement. He says the Scottish public “no longer has that sense of optimism or positivity” that existed in 2014, and this is due to “broken promises and undemocratic actions from Westminster”.

No Mr Swinney, Scotland feels let down mostly by the incompetence of your party's government. Our education system, NHS, police force, roads and economy are all in crisis due to the fact that you and your colleagues are not fit for office. Simples!

Jim Houston, Edinburgh

I don’t believe it

John Swinney’s opinion column was just more of the same old worn-out SNP deceitful propaganda. Mr Swinney knows very well that Scotland’s spending deficit overspend is running at twice the level of the UK’s, meaning that if Scotland left the UK and lost the extra financial fiscal transfers it receives from the rest of the UK approximately 16 per cent of public services and welfare benefits would have to be axed, or taxes raised by 16 per cent to make up for that shortfall previously filled from just being part of the larger UK.

Mr Swinney also knows that a poll taken after Indyref found that young people in fact voted No, only the 25-39 group alone voted Yes, and that 1 in 5 SNP voters had already given up on independence.

Scotland deserves better than the SNP’s endless attempts to deliberately deceive the Scottish people.

Alex Latta, Bonnyrigg, Midlothian

Missing a trick

Your editorial (18 September) summarises the failure of the SNP to meet the needs of ordinary Scots since 2014, but states rightly – and worryingly from the Unionist perspective – support for independence is still around 45 per cent. Looking to the future I would expect that support to increase, not because of anything John Swinney or Alex Salmond do but because of the failure of the UK Government under Keir Starmer – and the failure of the previous Tory and Tory/Liberal UK governments to raise the standard of living and the quality of life of ordinary people. Mismanagement of the economy and adherence to the cult of net zero by successive Prime Ministers and the burden of decarbonisation has led to the demise of much of our manufacturing base so that we are now dependent on financial services to keep the country afloat, but for how long?

Government debt has quadrupled from the year 2000 to £2.3 trillion today, and is rising. The Office for National Statistics reports that 41 per cent of energy bill payers say that it is difficult to pay their bills. The ONS reported in June that 33 per cent of those surveyed said it was difficult or very difficult to contact their GP. Accident and emergency departments see thousands of seriously ill patients waiting over 12 hours for treatment.

Meanwhile the Labour government have awarded junior doctors a 22 per cent pay rise and received a warning from their union that they will be back for more. The Money and Pensions Service reports that 25 per cent of the adult population have less that £200 in savings and 11.5 million Brits have less than £100 to fall back on. The current Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, laments a “black hole” of £20 billion but supported the £120bn black hole of the HS2 vanity project for which there is no business case.

Given this domestic backdrop one would think that the UK Government would act responsibly in foreign affairs. In 2022, according to the IFS, the UK Government spent £12.8bn on foreign aid. In 2023 £8.2 million was sent to China. This year the Zelensky regime is receiving an additional £1.7bn in aid, which compares with the £1.4bn saved by cutting pensioners' winter fuel payment. Since February 2022 the UK government has given Ukraine £12.5bn and emptied much of our armouries in Zelensky’s support – in a futile attempt to stop the inevitable – despite the fact that our military is short of resources on numerous fronts and the Royal Navy is in a parlous state.

Given all this, a renewed nationalist movement, if it ditched all the virtue signalling from gender change to “world leading” climate targets, and embraced the natural bounty of North Sea oil, could make significant progress.

Fortunately, from the Unionist perspective, there is no sign of that happening at all. The disconnect between support for independence and support for the SNP will continue.

William Loneskie, Oxton, Lauder, Berwickshire

Blinkered

Reading the Letters yesterday (18 September) one could be forgiven for thinking Scotland had won its independence in 2014. How can a broken system be repaired when many don’t comprehend it is irreparably broken and prefer to focus on parts of the system that, even if modified to function more efficiently, would not effect the overall repair of an anachronistic system such as the governance of Britain.

Brexit has further exposed the considerable democratic, social and economic decline of this “island”, but one would not realise this dire situation if only reading the letters of Jill Stephenson, Martin Redfern, Doug Morrison, Gerald Edwards and Douglas Cowe. Perhaps I missed their contributions to the wider debate of replacement of the House of Lords, proportional representation for Westminster, new models for better UK economic management, wealth distribution and social welfare, or the overall UK “repair” of federalism as proposed by former PM, Gordon Brown. To quote the author of The Vow, the United Kingdom will become a “failed state” unless it is “reformed”.

Stephen Flynn is correct to suggest it is time for “grown-up” debate on the way forward for Scotland. A “Citizen’s Convention” with all sectors of society and all political parties represented could aim to achieve broad consensus on recommending a preferred path, whether in the direction of independence, a federation or an alternative governmental system, along with an appropriate form of public confirmation. Those arguing against such a convention and those parties that possibly might refuse to participate presumably fear such a consensus and perhaps only support democracy when it suits their own narrow aims.

Stan Grodynski, Longniddry, East Lothian

Poor state

Martin Redfern displays a touching faith in the British state (Letters, 17 September). He also disputes Irvine Welsh's observations of the general decline in living standards by saying that other Western countries grapple with wealth inequality, as if that excuses it. Plus, he snidely implies that because Welsh has homes in Oxfordshire and the US he might not be best placed to make these observations. It is precisely because Welsh is a social critic and realist that we should listen to him. If one lives in a “nice” part of London or is able to have a place in the US and in Oxfordshire and one's work takes one all over Britain, one can see the poverty and deprivation.

The stark facts are these: the poorest 23 per cent of Irish people are better off than the poorest 23per cent of British people. Our standard of living will be lower than that of Romania and Poland by 2030. India has just overtaken us to become the fifth or sixth largest economy on the world. Mr Redfern needs to travel – not just in the north of England or inner city Birmingham but in some of the Southern English coastal cities, with their shops boarded up. We are in danger of becoming a Ruritanian playground for royalty and our Armani-clad political class with their £700 spectacle frames, while our privatised industries have failed spectacularly and we have security guards in supermarkets to stop people stealing food. It's tragic.

An independent Scotland could not be worse because we could at least have the "golden ticket” of our vast natural resources. It's time we stopped subsidising England and selling our energy to them rather than handing it over and being grateful for the crumbs of GERs, a discredited scheme ridiculed by top economists.

Marjorie Ellis Thompson, Edinburgh

Gravy train

Boris Johnson allowed the questions of who paid for his ludicrously expensive No.10 wallpaper and his West Indies holiday to drag on ad nauseam.

Now we have Sir Keir and Lady Starmer having their clothes, Taylor Swift tickets and even his spectacles paid for by a donor! On his retirement from heading the DPP he was knighted and given a personal, almost unique tax-saving deal on his already generous public sector pension under Statutory Instrument 2013 No. 2588 – The Pensions Increase (Pension Scheme for Keir Starmer QC) Regulations 2013 – unavailable to mere private sector mortals.

What is wrong with these very well-off people? Their sheer stupidity, naivety, shamelessness, lack of judgment and inability to foresee the humiliation of such actions show character deficiencies worrying in our PMs. And as the Starmers were supposedly keen to shield their teenagers from being in the spotlight, I wonder how much slagging off they are now facing at school.

John Birkett, St Andrews, Fife

Out of touch

Like many others, including those who need disabled parking facilities, one abhors the rumoured intention of the City of Edinburgh Council to remove parking from George Street.

Is this yet another example of how distanced our council is from the population they are supposed to represent?

This appears somewhat akin to a repeat of the costly and obstructive cycle lanes imposed on the community by the previous Council, notwithstanding only 3 per cent of Edinburgh residents actually use bicycles.

Elizabeth Marshall, Edinburgh

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