Readers' Letters: You're on to a loser looking for substance in a Swinney speech

Rachel Amery is an optimist (Analysis, 17 June). John Swinney has said he is going to overhaul public services – in much the same way as Nicola Sturgeon said that she would close the attainment gap in schools and establish a publicly-owned, not-for-profit energy company. So I’ll believe it when I see it. Ms Amery has to admit “there was not a lot of specific detail on what will be changing on the back of this reset”. Well, colour me surprised.

Her example of possible change in the NHS that Swinney intimated amounts to emulating England’s success (shock! horror!) in having had for some years an NHS app that “makes it easier to manage appointments, make it simple to access test results” and more.

Where Ms Amery is spot on is in writing: “Despite the lack of clear detail, he made a big deal out of this speech.” Don’t SNP leaders always do that?

First Minister John Swinney at the Scotland 2050 Conference at Edinburgh's Assembly Rooms yesterday (Picture: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

Jill Stephenson, Edinburgh

Not enough

John Swinney's promise re: winter fuel payment needs to take account of the different tax rates people pay in Scotland. Those up to £35,000 in England and Wales will have more money left after tax before they get their winter fuel payment.

If the First Minister does not want pensioners to have less than their counterparts down south to spend on heating he will need to give the allowance to those up to £37,000.

Elizabeth Hands, Armadale, West Lothian

Distraction ahoy

So John Swinney insists independence is within reach. Really? Or is he simply terrified of former SNP voters, at next year's Holyrood elections, migrating either to independence backing Greens and Alba or to pro-UK Labour or Reform?

Keir Starmer has made clear that there'll be no referendum during this Westminster parliament, and I can't see any other Westminster party or coalition granting another Scexit vote during the next.

The reality is that Swinney doesn't want voters judging the SNP on their shocking mismanagement of Scottish public services in the Sturgeon/Yousaf/Swinney eras and seeks to distract voters with yet another independence campaign.

Yet surely the SNP has failed the independence movement, too? It's been 11 years since we voted to remain in the UK and opinion poll trends have shown support primarily for us to continue to do so. Remember that the SNP has continually been in power during this period and has failed to deliver another referendum.

The 2026 Holyrood election looks tough for Swinney and I suspect he's going to have to try harder than beating the independence drum again when most of us are more concerned with the management of the NHS, education, housing and roads.

Martin Redfern, Melrose, Roxburghshire

Share power

A lead article by Alexander Brown (16 June) reviews the need for a Mayor plus additional devolved powers for the City of Glasgow. An additional feature from Andrew Carter stated that: “If Glasgow performed in line with comparable European cities, the Scottish economy would be 4.6 per cent higher”!

This failure is due to the refusal of the SNP to honour the pledge given by the 2020 Communities Secretary, Aileen Campbell, that the Scottish Government would implement the Andy Wightman bill to give local councils European-style safeguards following the May 2021 election. Not a single SNP first minister has honoured that pledge to the people of Scotland over the past four years.

However, in a speech of 14 May 2024 to mark the 25th anniversary of the Scottish Parliament, Anas Sarwar pledged to push power out of Holyrood and into the regions of Scotland Time, therefore, for all Scots outwith the environs of Edinburgh to give Anas Sarwar and the Scottish Labour Party the opportunity to deliver on a pledge that John Swinney and the SNP have refused to honour!

Ian Moir, Castle Douglas, Dumfries & Galloway

Still waiting

Back in 2007 one of the first things new first minister Alex Salmond promised was a focus on more efficient government and the reform of nine departments of the “Executive”, 27 executive agencies and the 152 quangos.

He added: “I'm not sure we need that complexity for a nation of five million. If you're going to have joined-up government you need less bits to join up.”

Eighteen years later and one of the relics of that hopeful regime, John Swinney, appeared on stage in a gas-lit fug of smoke and mirrors to swear he's going to finish the job.

Where's he getting his inspiration from? The spirit of Alex Salmond or the spectre of Trump, Farage, Reform and DOGE? One thing we can be sure of: it ain't gonna happen on John Swinney's watch.

Allan Sutherland, Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire

What democracy?

I see that without having consulted all the Members of Parliament, whom we, the people, elected to represent our interests, Keir Starmer is sending more jet fighters to the Middle East. In response to questions from the Press, Starmer refused to rule out them being used to protect Israel from Iranian attacks. I wonder if anybody asked if he would rule out them being used to protect Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Gaza or the West Bank from Israeli air attacks. But we know the answer to that already.

How blatant do his actions and those of Trump and others have to be before the penny drops for those who still believe we live in a democracy.

David J Crawford, Anniesland, Glasgow

Just saying...

On Monday many of our newspapers carried a large photo of Donald Trump hosting what was said to be the largest US military parade in decades.

I quote from Wikipedia's entry on the Nuremberg Rallies: “The rallies became a national event following Adolf Hitler's rise to power in 1933, and were thereafter held annually. Once the Nazi dictatorship was firmly established, party propagandists began filming the rallies for a national, and international, audience.”

Doug Clark, Currie, Midlothian

Falling behind

The determination of the SNP to retain their unilateral ban on nuclear power, no matter what, is baffling. It did not seem logical when first introduced, now it appears nonsensical. And that was before the climate change alarm and the impoverishing Net Zero commitment.

Now the UK is charging ahead with nuclear, with or without Scotland, and at long last there is a possibility in our time of abundant clean and reliable energy in every weather. An added bonus is that there is enough oil and gas available under our feet to keep us safe and well and warm until the new nuclear plants are up and running. A further plus is the hi-tech jobs and huge investment in our country.

Only the SNP wants us to be entirely separate from what is being done the UK, Europe and the entire civilised, progressive world.

Alexander McKay, Edinburgh

Conspiracy theory

Escalating conflict throughout the Middle East, war in mainland Europe. While despot Vladimir Putin, along with his Iranian terrorist-supporting allies, threaten global security and fuel supplies, Frances McKie (Letters, 16 June) resorts to banging the separatist anti-nuclear drum. We’re asked to swallow a bizarre conspiracy theory that “the nuclear lobby” somehow stands “in the way of necessary research and development” for a theoretical hydrogen solution to our energy needs.

What about increasingly desperate shrieks from John Swinney and his party about “independence” and “the far right” to an electorate weary after nearly two decades of non-stop failure?

Nationalists inhabit a make-believe world where ridiculous arrays of Chinese-manufactured wind turbines generate limitless electricity. A Saltire flapping over Edinburgh Castle’s highest turret would protect us from external aggression.

For the record, we only “export more energy than we can use” when the wind happens to be blowing at an optimum speed and electricity prices are rock-bottom. The rest of the time it’s necessary to rely on non-renewable resources, usually from elsewhere in the UK. Scotland is now on a totally different political, cultural, economic and environmental path to the rest of Great Britain. Thanks to the SNP and Greens, this is the path to self-delusion and stubborn, ideological denial of reality which most of us don’t wish to follow.

Martin O’Gorman, Edinburgh

Well done Bob!

In one of the most exciting finishes ever in the US Open at Oakmont last Sunday, Bob MacIntyre came up just short of what would have been an amazing victory. Any one of five players could have been the victor and he was just pipped at the post for a very respectable second.

Where Bob MacIntyre didn't fall short was in his admirable sportsmanship. When JJ Spaun, the eventual, and most unlikely, winner, holed a 64ft winning putt, Bob was seen to be applauding. It all made for thrilling television. Beneath Bob’s impressive modesty lies a very powerful determination. Coming second, he said, had given him a thirst to win a major. The “wee man from Oban” is big on talent and, as Martin Dempster wrote, there are “few doubters” now.

Ian Petrie, Edinburgh

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