Readers' Letters: Why should Scots pay for SNP plot to break up UK?

Jamie Hepburn MSP, with the grand title of Scottish Independence Minister, says many more Scexit policy papers will be published.

SNP Independence Minister Jamie Hepburn says more Scexit policy papers will be published.

Why are Scottish and UK taxpayers paying for the 20 civil servants who are working on a blueprint to break up Britain? This costs over £1 million a year so should be paid for by the SNP party, not taxpayers. The UK government distributes £41 billion a year to the Scottish Government. £2m should be withheld until SNP members pay.

Clark Cross, Linlithgow, West Lothian

Geared up for sleep

Yet again the SNP tells us the independence campaign is “stepping up a gear”, which begs the question, how many more gears are there? We have been hearing this stuck record for a decade and it is so, so boring, wearying and tiresome. Can they not just get on with making Scotland stronger, not stupider?

Allan Thompson, Bearsden, Glasgow

Unfortunate mix

Neil Anderson regards it as vital that farming methods be drastically adapted to minimise manmade CO2 release so as to lessen its impact in worsening climate changes (Letters, 21 May). He overlooks the fact that none of the CO2 of human or agricultural origin-crops, bovine/ovine-made CO2 stays local but immediately admixes with atmospheric gases. Therefore, UK farmers would not ward off local climate threats by radically changing their methods in crop growing or animal husbandry.

Charles Wardrop, Perth

Nasty game

We live in a world where ad hominem attacks dominate British politics. While the Tories trail Labour in UK opinion polls, it's also evident that ship-steadying Rishi Sunak is the Tories' principal asset – so Labour focuses its attacks on the UK prime minister and his family, making increasingly wild and spurious claims. The SNP under Nicola Sturgeon concentrated its targeting on Tories, whom she “detests”.

But now with Humza Yousaf in post and Labour likely poised to take a number of Scottish seats at the next Westminster election, the SNP switches its negative political messaging from the Tories to Keir Starmer himself, labelling him a red Tory.

Wouldn't it be refreshing if discourse in the probable Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election and the next general election campaign was conducted on the basis of policy rather than ad hominem attacks on individuals?

Martin Redfern, Melrose Roxburghshire

Water woes

Private water companies in England are coming in for a lot of criticism for excess sewage overflows. As our water companies are not private, we took a pride in thinking that such things did not happen here. Yet recent press reports show that we do suffer from excess sewage discharges. Private or public, seems to make little difference!

William Ballantine, Bo’ness, West Lothian

Who’s in charge?

Humza Yousaf won the SNP vote from Kate Forbes but Green list MSP Lorna Slater is sounding like the real First Minister, with her speeches on the success of the deposit return scheme and tour of the Scottish Islands in an expensive catamaran. Perhaps Yousaf has decided to take a back seat and leave Slater to take the flak that goes with the FM job.

Dennis Forbes Grattan, Bucksburn, Aberdeen

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