Readers' Letters: Thousands of newbuilds make housing crisis claim hard to believe

We are told there is a terrible housing shortage and that new builds have “plummeted”. SNP ministers “have been accused of fuelling Scotland’s devastating housing emergency”!

Apart from the tedious accusations, which are as unhelpful as they are predictable, the perception on the ground is the complete opposite. Travelling around Scotland, I am aware of the extraordinary housebuilding craze everywhere I go. Starting in my own district, Murrayfield has catapulted from a very low density area into a neighbourhood filled with new apartments. Over by the West Approach Road, there are newbuilds everywhere. Moving to the west and south outskirts, new houses are springing up in vast numbers and if you follow the A1 to the east, there are literally thousands of new houses.

Everywhere on our recent trip to Kintyre, new housing estates are springing up all over the country. How can this square with the “devastating housing emergency?”

Newbuild housing on the outskirts of Edinburgh (Picture: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

Brian Bannatyne-Scott, Edinburgh

Wasted votes

As we approach the general election on 4 July, I am perturbed by the cruelly unfair nature of the constituency vote with its winner takes all result. Surely each vote cast, for whatever party, should bear equal weight and there should be no such thing as a wasted vote.

One infamous example of the “first past the post” fiasco occurred in north east Fife, where the winner who took all had won by a mere two votes, outvoted by the combined vote given to the other parties, whose votes were rendered wasted.

I hope that this general election is the last to be decided in this discredited way, so that every precious vote will count equally as proportionally represented.

Ian Petrie, Edinburgh

Muckspreading

I love the latest letter in The Scotsman from Martin Redfern (25 June). He claims that on social media the SNP don’t want England to do well in the Euros, an easy hit on the SNP that is hard to prove.

He has no proof of that, of course, and he can’t be disproven because, let’s face it, social media is a giant ocean of mud for small people to put conspiracy theories out there. I’ll bet if social media said John Swinney was a lizard person Mr Redfern will believe it in his quest to spread rubbish about the SNP. As for me, I’m a former SNP councillor and I will be cheering on England.

Alexander Lunn, Edinburgh

Empty promises

Kate Forbes, the Economy Secretary, is at it again. This time she’s attacking Labour’s proposal for GB Energy, saying it will fail to deliver benefits for consumers. Is this the same Kate Forbes who is in an SNP Government that in 2017 promised to set up an energy company that would sell energy to the consumer “at the lowest price possible”? That is a direct quote from the then First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon; Another soundbite that was nothing more than that.

Seven years later, it’s a promise that Kate Forbes and other SNP ministers seem keen not to mention, just like the ferries.Maybe it’s just a seven-year hitch, but then Scotland has had 17 years of SNP soundbites, empty promises and failure to deliver. Little wonder they’re not fighting the election on their record!

Brian Barbour, Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland

Going solo

The SNP hope to rejoin the EU following independence from the UK. It is impossible for any nation to be independent and be a member of the European Union.​​​​​

DJ Neale, Edinburgh

Plea to powerful

Has someone forgotten to tell the retail tycoons of our country and our so-called Government bods what “cost-of-living crisis” actually means? And that it’s not over yet? As the general election looms ominously closer one would think the powers that want to be might be less inclined to play playground games with each other, and instead offer solutions for our country’s growing poverty, hunger and homelessness situations.

For many this year, and in the years to come, a holiday will be a long-forgotten pastime as so called budget chain hotels continue to charge five-star prices for three-star accommodation (£850 for three nights, anyone?). This at a time when we are struggling as a nation in so many ways, with queues for food banks (themselves running out of supplies). the cost of food going up and up, people living and dying on the streets, and indeed, doing the same on benefits or wages that don’t account for almost everywhere hiking their prices. Are we supposed to stay at home for the rest of our lives? Meanwhile we watch the people who have the power to change things take ridiculously expensive holidays, ridiculously expensive transport to get anywhere and, of course, feast on the ridiculously expensive food many of of us cannot afford.

Just for once, guys, do something different when you get into power next week. Pay attention to what your people actually need and not what you think they want to hear in order to win a Very Very Important Election. We need to know that we won’t starve tonight because we only have enough to feed the kids. We need to know that our wonderful NHS, with its wonderful people, is fit for purpose and that the people who help it exist are paid what should be their right to be paid, because of what they do to keep it going.

We need a much fairer benefits system where people in need are given the help and money they need without having their sanity and severe health issues exacerbated by performing like circus creatures only to have their needs thrown back in their faces by the corrupt system that currently exists. We are one of the richest countries in the world and yet also one of the poorest. Its time to count the real cost-of-living issues and start preventing the deaths of the rapidly increasing amount of people who are starving, can’t get the medical help they need when they need it, and are just struggling to live each painful day they are battling through.

Bronwyn Tonner, Prestonpans, East Lothian

Vape disaster

New laws being considered by Holyrood could see the “beginning of the end” for single-use, disposable items in Scotland (your report, 25 June). This Scottish legislation would force producers to take back items once they are no longer usable. Taking vapes as an example, for decades cigarette butts have been discarded outside bookies, pubs and other places, yet politicians did not think about this when vapes were introduced. Now vapes are littering everywhere.

The politicians and their armies of special advisors did not consider that the tempting flavours would introduce children and young adults to vaping and, contrary to what was forecast by our too-well-paid politicians, many then swapped to cigarettes. Although Scottish councils all have excellent facilities for cans, plastics and glass bottles, the idiots still continue to discard them. This will continue with vapes and other no longer useable items like washing machines and fridges which are fly tipped.

This is yet another ill-thought-out Scottish disaster that will make Lorna Slater's £100 million and counting disaster, otherwise known as the Deposit Return Scheme, look like chump change.

Clark Cross, Linlithgow, West Lothian

Stand firm

If people are going to consider who to vote for, they should devote a few minutes’ consideration to the abject surrender of Edinburgh Council to pressure by the Chinese when they had intended to establish a “friendship arrangement” with Kaohsiung in Taiwan (your report, 24 June).

The Council will no doubt defend themselves by saying that they are protecting jobs from Chinese Communist retributions if they had confirmed the arrangement. But they should consider something else. Taiwan is a free, democratic nation which is preparing for a possible assault by its much larger, undemocratic neighbour. We have all seen the threats, both stated and unstated, by the totalitarian Chinese to conquer the free people of Taiwan.

Is the west to give in and bend the knee? If so, then the Labour administration in Edinburgh show that they are unworthy of any kind of leadership role. If we do not stand up to such bullies they will walk all over us. They only respect strength.

I despair of the future if we end up with a cowardly Labour government. What Edinburgh and the UK need is a government with guts. The only party who have some semblance of that is the Tories.

Peter Hopkins, Edinburgh

Double talk

First Minister John Swinney claims that the Scottish Government is utterly focused on dualling A9. Can someone remind me what page 1, line 1 of their manifesto says?

Jane Lax, Aberlour

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