Readers' Letters: Victims should be told of early release plans
Perhaps it is merely another example of the gross incompetence we have come to expect from those presently in charge of our affairs in Scotland. But the news that they are letting violent prisoners free early – because of the bursting-at-the-seams situation in Scottish prisons – and, crucially, not told their victims seems quite incredible, even for the SNP.
So, a single mother, say, could confront her violent abuser in the street quite by chance.
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Hide AdIt really is time for the people making these decisions to go and never to return.


Alexander McKay, Edinburgh
Tackle alcohol
As parts of the media focus on Nicola Sturgeon and Alex Salmond squabbling on TV, blaming one another for each other's failings, the struggling SNP and their failure to break up the UK, we learn that Scottish alcohol-related deaths have reached a 15-year high.
SNP Public Health Minister Jennifer Minto, naturally, is as regretful as the rest of us and reels off a brief list of what the nationalists are supposedly doing about it, which is principally to put up the price of alcohol and invest in more alcohol treatment services.
I don't know if this is the right or wrong course of action. Do they need to be adopting these policies more aggressively? Or are they the wrong policies? Whatever Minto is doing now isn't working. Just like with drugs death rates, alcohol death rates continue to be higher in Scotland than elsewhere in the UK – the trend here has continued on an upwards trajectory pretty much continuously since the SNP came to power in 2007.
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Hide AdSurely, it's imperative, if fewer lives in the future are to be lost, that the SNP gets its act together, and fast, to tackle this deep-rooted, tragic problem.
Martin Redfern, Melrose, Roxburghshire
Magic debt
If Chancellor Rachel Reeves wishes to save money, she might turn her attention to the banking system and the £100 billion a year interest they charge on our £2,800bn national debt. That is to say, about £2bn a week.
What makes this an outrage is that much of the national debt is bank magic money – conjured from thin air by means of their fractional reserve lending system. The banks charge interest on money they have themselves created. Here is an opportunity for Chancellor Reeves to reform this ludicrous and costly system, where private banks create the public money supply. She would improve life for us all, while making herself famous.
Malcolm Parkin, Kinnesswood, Kinross
Shameful affair
Yesterday our constituency MP, Douglas Alexander, dutifully donned his blindfold and did as he was told and voted for the Winter Fuel Payment cuts. After all he had much to protect, his junior minister allowance on top of his MP’s salary.
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Hide AdSo the government has to save money. Let’s look around. Who is vulnerable? Ah, the pensioners. They cannot harm us in any way. For instance, they cannot go on strike. So remove the winter fuel allowance. What if some die of cold? That will save some money on the state pension and maybe even release a house to help the housing crisis.
This Labour government, and particularly Scottish Labour MPs, should be thoroughly ashamed. I only hope the Scottish electorate remember and humble Labour in the forthcoming Holyrood elections
Jim Thompson, Dunbar, East Lothian
Tax payment
Instead of cutting the winter fuel payment, the Government should tax it. Many OAPs with private pensions pay income tax. Mostly they won't need the payment. Even pensioners who qualify for it but live with a pensioner who gets a private pension won't need it. So why not let the tax system sort it?
Steuart Campbell, Edinburgh
Poor prowess
If the 800,000 pensioners who could, but have not, claimed pension credit did so Keir Starmer's £1.5 billion savings by abolishing the £300 winter fuel payment would be greatly diminished, if not completely wiped out. So if this is a flavour of Starmer and his Labour Party's economic prowess, heaven help us with their drive to grow the economy. These errant pensioners are already saving the country money, who the hell is advising the fools in Downing Street?
Stan Hogarth, Strathaven, South Lanarkshire
Levy thoughts
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Hide AdAlastair Carmichael’s rage against “being charged to drive around some of the more scenic parts of one’s native land” (Letters, 9 September) contains a number of inaccuracies. There are no proposals for an increase in fuel costs. Commentators have suggested that an increase in fuel tax may be in the Budget but the government has not brought forward any proposals.
There is currently no “likelihood” of being charged to drive in the most scenic parts of Scotland. A bill gives councils the right to introduce a visitor levy on overnight accommodation subject to consultation with residents, businesses and tourism agencies. Only Edinburgh Council has indicated so far that it will look to introduce the levy, Aberdeen and Highland may follow.
There is no evidence to suggest that “campervanners are vilified”. I recently visited Assynt where signs welcome motorhomes to stay for up to three nights in lay-bys. There was no charge and single track roads in the NC500 are open to motorhomes but not caravans.
Finally, Mr Carmichael claims that lorries and tractors are the main causes of road damage. Most experts consider that the weather is the main cause. Freeze thaw action, heavy rain and excessive heat are more damaging.
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Hide AdI would agree that people domiciled in the UK should not need to pay a tourist levy. They already pay through their existing taxes. The vast majority of tourists in Scotland are from the UK and should not have to pay twice. The sole Scottish voice I heard on holiday near Lochinver was a woman going to her third job of the day. Most locals are forced to move away. If a levy is introduced in the Highlands it should be used to facilitate accommodation and good jobs for locals rather than infrastructure.
Neil Anderson, Edinburgh
Awful airport
I could not agree more with Robert Cormack (Letters, 7 September) about the dire state of Edinburgh Airport. We used to have a nice wee airport at Turnhouse, but now we have a monster whose last thought is for traveller convenience and comfort. Munich, our twin city, used to have a decent small airport at Riem, but has replaced it with a magnificent giant, the Franz Josef Strauss airport, with an underground stop in its basement, a multiplicity of escalators and spacious areas around the gates. What is so wrong with us that we couldn’t be as successful?
At Edinburgh Airport there is a Special Assistance office whose staff are exemplary. The snag is, as Prof Cormack implies, that it is a long way from the vehicle drop-off point, and can be accessed only on foot. Whoever designed this external space was certainly not thinking about the elderly, disabled or heavily encumbered. Inside the terminal, the facilities at international gates are poor to awful and, as far as I know, there are no airbridges.
The result is that travellers with hand baggage must negotiate two flights of stairs down to the aircraft or upstairs from the aircraft. If the good lord had intended us to carry hand baggage up and down stairs, without benefit of escalators, he would not have invented wheeled cases. International travellers must traverse a dim and weirdly painted corridor on arrival, and then climb two flights of stairs. I was told that arrivals were required to climb stairs, walk a long distance and then descend stairs so that they would not be able to complain about waiting too long in the baggage reclaim area.
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Hide AdProf Cormack rightly calls Edinburgh Airport the “Turnhouse Beerhall and Shopping Mall”. It is a revenue-generating scheme at which accessing one’s flight is made as inconvenient as possible.
Jill Stephenson, Edinburgh
Bad idea
C Lowson advocates the dissolution of the Scottish Parliament in order to save money (Letters, 6 September). This would result in direct rule from Westminster which the people of Scotland do not want, this was guaranteed by a referendum 25 years ago.
Before that Scotland was completely neglected by what is now an English parliament at Westminster. Note that the minister for education, health etc are for England only, and they cannot cope. Many politicians have interfered with democracy, always with bad results, in Europe last century, in Africa, Asia and South America just now. Perhaps Westminster could also be dissolved to save money, that would not be a good idea either.
Sandy Philip, Edinburgh
Zero interest
Those on the UK climate gravy train keep telling us what we should do to cut greenhouse gasses but never reveal what other countries are doing – or rather, not doing.
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Hide AdGermany has approved a new gas project. The US, the world's largest oil producer, pays lip service to Net Zero while giving big tax breaks for fracking. Norway is extending the life of its North Sea oil and gas reserves long into the future with big incentives. Christopher Luxon's new centre-right government in New Zealand is retreating from the environmental commitments of his predecessor. Sweden has cancelled a green aviation tax. The Dutch government has abolished the legal requirements to fit heat pumps.
Cheap coal provides 40 per cent of the world's electricity and the demand for new coal-fired plants and coal grows. The oil, gas and coal-rich countries are not interested in Net Zero. It appears that the UK is alone in trying to save the planet.
Clark Cross, Linlithgow, West Lothian
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