Readers' Letters: SNP government wastes money as Scots in need suffer

Utterly deplorable! How can people vote for such a ruthless political party? I am referring to the decisions by the SNP Government in the recent budget to cut the funding for mental health, child poverty and housing support, while imposing a council tax freeze which benefits middle class home-owners most.

First Minister Humza Yousaf gave blood over Christmas but is his government doing enough for patients? (Picture: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

The SNP have decided to cut support for people in real need while giving a freebie to the better-off. That is a policy decision which has nothing to do with Westminster. It is a policy decision by ruthless, desperate SNP politicians who are prepared to bribe middle class voters at the expense of the sick and the needy in our society.

Bad spending decisions by the SNP Government are the real source of our woes. It is easy to see the big one-off wastes of public money which have squandered millions – the ferries, the trams inquiry, the needless court cases, etc, but that is only part of the problem. There is also ongoing expenditure on people sitting in quangos, pretend embassies, non-jobs and the like. It eats up so much public money that there is not enough for the services we really need. Take, for example, the 20 civil servants spending their time churning out speculative independence project reports. They cost over £1 million per year but the SNP would rather cut the child poverty budget than cut back on that expense Likewise, under the SNP the number of special advisers and Ministers at Holyrood, as well as quangos, has ballooned, but there is no question of those expenses being cut while services for people in real need are slashed.

Scotland deserves better than to be governed by such incompetent, unprincipled zealots who rely on their threadbare separatist rhetoric to bamboozle the voters. Surely the next election will see them brought to account and unceremoniously dumped!

Les Reid, Edinburgh

Forget EVs

We really must all make a New Year resolution to be nicer to EV owners. Grants for EVs have ended for those costing over £35,000. Free electricity is no longer available at rail stations and local authority car parks.

No one wants to buy a used EV. Unreliable recharging infrastructure. EVs stuck in snow or traffic jams have run out of electricity. EVs have a low trade-in value. EV lithium batteries can catch fire – in Europe EVs have been banned from underground car parks.

A tip for those thinking of buying an EV. Don't. We can continue to buy a petrol/diesel car until 2035. Not saving the planet? Well since there are 1.474 billion cars in the world and only 33.2 million in the UK a few EVs will make no difference especially as, as was shown at COP28 other countries are ramping up their greenhouse gases and have zero intention of ramping down.

Clark Cross, Linlithgow, West Lothian

Painful affair

The standard lame response from the SNP when challenged about chronic NHS waiting lists in Scotland is that they are spending more on the NHS than ever before but this conceals the truth of the situation in that hundreds of millions are going to increase profits for privately owned agency companies and their fat cat directors. While dedicated NHS staff struggle to just keep the service the agency staff walk away with much enhanced pay rates.

The SNP has mismanaged NHS Scotland over the last 15 years, forcing patients in Scotland to spend their life savings on going private.

Dennis Forbes Grattan, Bucksburn, Aberdeen

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