Readers' letters: Starmer will not deliver proper 'change' to the House of Lords

In July the UK did not have a general election, but an election to the House of Commons. The BBC gave the turnout of the UK electorate that voted in that Commons election as 60 per cent. The percentage of the UK electorate that voted for members of the House of Lords was zero per cent.

The Labour Party’s manifesto of 1910 said “The Lords must go”. But 114 years later there is no prospect that Keir Starmer’s government will follow through on this.

The four paragraphs on the Lords in Labour’s 2024 manifesto referred to “an alternative second chamber”, and did not mention elections to the Lords. The King’s Speech only says that there will be “reform to remove the right of hereditary peers to sit and vote in the House of Lords”. Is that it? What about a right for UK voters to vote for members of the House of Lords?

Keir Starmer’s actions show that he has no intention of allowing full democracy in the UK. On July 4 the “Dissolution Peerages 2024” press release showed that Keir Starmer nominated eight of the 19 new life peers announced that day. And he decided to create more, to put into government. On July 5 the King approved ministerial appointments, of whom five, Richard Hermer (who attends the cabinet as Attorney General for England and Wales and Advocate General for Northern Ireland), Patrick Vallance, James Timpson, Jacqui Smith and David Hanson, were to have life peerages conferred by the King. No peer has been appointed yet to the post of Advocate General for Scotland. Is a new life peerage in the offing?

The full lists of ministers in the departments of state show that a further 15 are members of the House of Lords. Does Keir Starmer not have confidence in his Labour MPs to fill all government roles from their ranks?

Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede, Labour Under-Secretary of State for Justice, who lost his place as a hereditary peer in the Lords but returned as a life peer, shows that any future removal of hereditary peers can be reversed. I have no confidence that Keir Starmer and the UK Labour government will “change” the UK into a full democracy.

E Campbell Newton Mearns, East Renfrewshire

Learning curve

Critics of Scottish education fail to appreciate that high UK-wide poverty rates is the main reason for the attainment gap or that Westminster has control of the major economic levers required to address poverty.

However, there has been a record narrowing of the attainment gap in primary schools where literacy and numeracy improvements reach a new high. Also, well over 90 per cent of pupils in Scotland go on to positive destinations within nine months after the end of the school year.

The overall Higher pass rate for 2024 is 74.9 per cent which is similar to 2019, the last pre-Covid year, and the figures for the most deprived areas has actually slightly improved compared to 2019. During the last four years of Labour control up to 2007, the overall Higher pass rate only reached 71.7per cent in their best year.

Scotland has the most educated people in Europe, half the population aged 25 to 64 have a university, college or vocational qualification – four per cent above the UK average.

On subject choices, why would Scottish youngsters study French or German when we have been taken out of Europe against our will?

As for STEM subjects, Labour’s decision to cancel funding for Edinburgh University’s £800 million supercomputer is a massive blow for our attempts to become a leading centre for research, development and innovation.

Mary Thomas, Edinburgh

Back to school

How tragic that Stan Grodynski (Letters, 9 August) wraps himself so tightly in a saltire that he’s wilfully blind to the stark, dramatic failure of SNP education policies.

The continuing decline in attainment is due to a lack of job security for teaching and support staff, increasing class sizes, an explosion of violence in our schools, inadequate learning resources and the dysfunctional so-called Curriculum for Excellence (CfE).

Commissars from the Scottish Government quango Education Scotland will even tell you that we don’t actually have a curriculum as such, but rather “a philosophy”.In defence of this continuing fiasco, Mr Grodynski merely parrots the Education Secretary’s tired excuse of “the impact of the global pandemic”.

He also celebrates “a record number of students from deprived areas obtaining university places”. Such misguided social engineering merely leads to many of the best talent going elsewhere to study, often never returning.

Ah, if only armchair fans of “progressive” education could spend some time in a classroom for a taste of reality!

Martin O’Gorman, Edinburgh

Tax maxed out

It is typical of both Edinburgh Council and its leader, Cammy Day, that they can utterly botch the simple and popular idea of a tourist tax.

Almost no one would complain about a simple £5-10 levy on a room booking, but seven per cent per night is ridiculous. Edinburgh hotel prices are high even at quieter times of the year, and astronomical during the Festival, so a levy of seven per cent is outrageous and will put visitors off.

Justifying this by saying it’s small change for millionaire visitors is totally disingenuous and ignores the fact that it will be this percentage across the board, hitting families and casual visitors alike. Think again!

Brian Bannatyne-Scott, Edinburgh

X marks spot

It is interesting to note UK Government ministers such as Dame Diana Johnson, Home Office Minister and Heidi Alexander, UK Courts Minister, queuing up to slam Elon Musk for “deplorable” comments on X, formerly known as Twitter.

There are clarion calls for X to fall under greater legal controls alongside social media generally. I simply wonder whether these government ministers, including a critical Sir Keir Starmer, will now have cancelled their X accounts and will no longer subject us to their comments and thoughts via this medium? I very much doubt it.

Richard Allison, Edinburgh

Half right

Humza Yousaf has attacked the far-right wing and Elon Musk in particular, branding him “dangerous” (Scotsman, August 9).

This is typical myopic vision from the SNP. Are the extreme left wing not equally dangerous? Huge left-wing rallies ostensibly for a ceasefire in Gaza show no banners regarding the plight of Israeli hostages. Then there is the left-wing denial of women’s rights as well as other “woke” ideals and those who preach “refugees welcome”, as opposed to those who see real problems with that.

The SNP has practised division for so long it has ceased to notice there is always another side to an argument. It now looks like Keir Starmer has too.

Gerald Edwards, Glasgow

Ca’ canny

It is sad, but predictable that the SNP knitting circle continues to attempt to capitalise on anything they can to try to reflect badly on the rest of the UK. The people of Scotland have already rumbled that they are simply a one-issue ginger group, but Leah Gunn Barrett and Pol Yates continue to fight for their lost cause (Letters, 7 August).

It is fairly obvious by now that the riots in England are being manipulated by certain groups. It is not beyond possibility that the Kremlin is involved. It is in Russia’s interest to destabilise the UK and the riots suit Putin admirably. Russia has form when it comes to manipulating social media. Large groups of counter-demonstrators came out because social media had indicated that there would be violent riots in a number of locations. There weren't.

It takes someone with first-hand involvement to make a comment which nails the root cause, I think. Jonathan Hayes, who was stabbed in the Southport attack, commented: “There appears to be a strong undercurrent of discontent… about levels of immigration (however)… this is just a catalyst or a trigger, but I don’t think it’s the root cause.”

I think that the Government needs to reconsider its policies, such as ending the annual winter fuel allowance and focus on deprivation in English heartlands, rather than knee-jerk, anti-right wing rhetoric, to sort out this problem.

Leah Barrett and Pol Yates should understand that they are being manipulated by the very same murky groups and ca’ canny.

Andrew HN Gray, Edinburgh

Electric nightmare

Perhaps this may be a salutary lesson to the green brigade who wish to impose Electric Vehicles (EVs) on us with great alacrity.

Recently, while parked outside my house, an aforementioned EV collided with the vehicle behind me at low speed – possibly as low as 15mph.

If the vehicle had been a normal petrol or diesel car, on impact the high chances are it would have stalled, causing minimum damage to its first vehicle of contact, whether the driver touched brakes or not.

However, this “green machine”, being electric and with enormous torque, continued on its journey, up the side of the first vehicle along the bonnet and hitting mine, thus pushing it into a third vehicle.

Thankfully no injuries, but three cars written off and a third with enough damage to light up the face of the insurers.

This, as one example, will ensure I never, ever drive one of these abominations – never mind the possibility they may self-combust at any given moment!

David Millar, Lauder, Scottish Borders

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