Readers' Letters: Things can only get worse under Starmer


I was a struck by a sense of deja vu when I heard that Sir Keir Starmer was giving a speech in which his theme was “things will get worse before they get better”.
He talked of 14 years of failure and of inheriting an economic “black hole” since the Conservatives took over from the last Labour Government. He has a short memory. Doesn't he remember when there was “no money left” at the Treasury when Labour last left office? I do.
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Hide AdSir Keir goes on about the recent riots, seemingly without actually asking why there were riots. Can he not put two and two together and realise that the rioters (even the BBC admitted last week that there is no link to "extreme right wing elements") only rioted once his party scrapped the Rwanda scheme which would have sent cross-Channel illegals somewhere outside the UK and discouraged any more from coming here. Instead, the numbers are rising!
What we are seeing is a Government which is quite consciously abandoning the measures put in place to control the trades unions. These laws, put in place by the Conservatives, kept the extreme left-wing trades unions in check, but Labour is now kowtowing to them, just like Labour under Jim Callaghan. Labour is dishing out pay rises as if there was no tomorrow.
The outcome is entirely predictable. In five years, by the next election, Britain will be a basket case again, just like in 1979. Things will only get worse. They won't get better. The UK will end up just like Scotland under the completely useless SNP.
Dave Anderson, Aberdeen
Alliance needed
Hardly a day goes by without some aspect of the inadequacies of the current self-styled Government at Holyrood being highlighted in the media. Just how can such an inept administration possibly expect to survive until 2026?
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Hide AdBy the date of the next Holyrood elections Scotland's economy and public services will be in dire straits at both national and local authority levels. Most clear thinking Scots are already fully aware of the marked deterioration of everyday life in this northerly part of the UK – be it in Education, Health, public transport on land or sea etc – their list of failures seems endless.
There is little doubt in most people's minds as to which political party has been the cause of the problem. The obvious answer to Scotland's current problems would be a return to the Scottish Executive under the direction of a Labour/Lib Dem alliance. Such a grouping of MSPs would most certainly put the people, and public services, before that old chestnut, Independence!
Robert I G Scott, Northfield, Ceres, Fife
Unhealthy move
The Scottish Government has made a mistake in reallocating funding from the Nature Restoration Fund to cover the pay offer to local government employees. The decision will be bad for health.
Evidence on the fundamental importance of nature for health through clean air and water and access to green spaces has grown steadily. The report from the UK Health Alliance on Climate Change, an alliance of 48 organisations of health professionals including the three Scottish royal colleges, on Biodiversity, Climate Change and Health, showed the many benefits to health from nature and the harm when nature is depleted. Scotland is one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world.
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Hide AdThe First Minister has said that a priority of the government is “to enable the people of Scotland to live happier, healthier lives”. Diverting the funds is likely to work against that priority, not least because the poorest will be most harmed.
Workers should be properly paid and we know that the country has severe financial constraints, but we call on the government not only to pay workers properly but also to meet the funding to restore nature.
Our health and happiness depends on restoring nature.
Richard Smith CBE, Chair, UK Health Alliance on Climate Change, London
Mayor... maybe
The idea of elected mayors for Glasgow and Edinburgh is a good one (Perspective, 27 August).
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Hide AdMy only problem with it is the fear that instead of what we need – free-thinking, bright, informed candidates – we will get one only considered for the job only because of services rendered to the SNP. There have been so many of these over the years.
A clapping seal waiting on his or her orders from SNP HQ is the very last thing needed.
Alexander McKay, Edinburgh
No solution
Lovina Roe wonders how long it will take Labour Energy Minister Ed Miliband to “sprint towards clean, homegrown power” solution” (Letters, 27 August).
The answer is never and a better question would have been: “What is the debt that Ed Miliband will accrue to achieve his net zero nirvana?” The answer was given by the paper issued by the Office for Budget Responsibility, which pointed out that UK debt would triple to achieve a Green Transition. That means a Green Debt cost of £6 trillion with the resulting impact on interest repayment costs. Note that indicates a Scottish debt of around £600 billion!
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Hide AdYet again politicians refuse to be transparent with the taxpayer over the fact that net zero costs are unaffordable.
Ian Moir, Castle Douglas, Dumfries and Galloway
Money wasted
Nearly a third of households in Scotland are estimated to be in fuel poverty yet, as Jim Finlayson states (Letters, 24 August), Scotland is energy rich; indeed Aberdeen has been described as the oil capital of Europe.
While Scotland is no longer self sufficient in oil and gas it produces an abundance of energy. Scotland exported ten times as much electricity in 2023 as it imported, yet in Southern Scotland we pay more for electricity than the UK average.
The vagaries of the energy markets also mean that wholesale gas prices on the futures market have risen by 50 per cent since February while the global current stock price has barely changed. The price suppliers pay is based on the higher futures price so we all suffer.
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Hide AdWhile I agree with Mr Finlayson that Scots “deserve to benefit from their nation’s own resources”, we can’t rely on the SNP to manage an already generous share of the resources of the sixth-richest country in the world. Unlike the Norwegian government, which wisely invested its oil and gas returns in what has become the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, the UK Government chose to allow its oil revenue to be frittered away, as would an independent SNP government.
Last year the return on the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund would easily have been enough to pay for UK state pension costs and the winter fuel allowance for all pensioners.
Instead the UK and SNP governments prioritise inflation-busting public sector pay increases rather than investing long term to reverse climate change and to support vulnerable pensioners, putting short term political aspirations before long term social and environmental objectives. Governments founded on socialist and democratic principles are failing the most needy in society.
Neil Anderson, Edinburgh
Ancient wisdom
The discovery of the 4,000-year-old Balgay necklace (your report, 27 August) is both exciting and a much-needed reminder of just how sophisticated our fellow human beings were way back then.
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Hide AdDuring that same era, literacy in the form of the earliest alphabet and a remarkably advanced numeracy were being established in Babylon, both in theory and in practice.
I was privileged, as a student in the 1960s, to visit the Temples of Ramses and Nefertari in Abu Simbel, at the time of their removal from the banks of the Nile to an inland site, to make way for the Aswan Dam and the creation of Lake Nasser. The altar within the 4,000-year-old Ramses Temple was so positioned that the first thing that the rising sun hit was the image of the sun god they worshipped, in the depths of the temple. This showed a remarkably detailed knowledge of the maths involved, put into practice.
It is perhaps humbling to reflect on the still widespread problems we currently face on both the literacy and numeracy fronts, which are essential to all our knowledge, and how great our debt is to our brothers and sisters of 4,000 years ago and even beyond.
Ian Petrie, Edinburgh
Private lives
Vacant private school buildings could be used to house illegal migrants. They could be taught to become self sufficient, with residents undertaking, under supervision, the cooking, cleaning, laundry, gardening etc. They could also attend English as second language classes. This would enable them to fit into communities and also look for work.
Elizabeth Hands
Armadale, West Lothian
Curtain down
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Hide AdThe only way Richard Strauss's opera Capriccio “becomes repetitious” (Review, 27 August) is if you don't understand the opera and what it's about. The libretto is a work of genius, as is the score, and with clear surtitles translating every word, there's no excuse for being bored. I found it marvellous, a fitting end to an excellent Festival and a great memorial to Sir Andrew Davis, who was meant to conduct it.
Brian Bannatyne-Scott, Edinburgh
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