Taylor Swift should help homeless people turfed out to accommodate fans - readers' letters

Shelter Scotland are rightly outraged that homeless people are being moved out of Edinburgh to make way for Taylor Swift tourists. It’s “shameful” these concerts are pushing the vulnerable out to make way for fans paying top dollar for tickets and accommodation that would otherwise be used for homeless people. Many will be forced to move to accommodation in other cities far from jobs, schools and support networks.

Edinburgh Council has dismissed the situation as a “symptom of the housing emergency” while residential buildings like the council-owned Drumbrae Care Home lie idle, capable of housing dozens of homeless people. It seems a gross injustice that the council would rather hire taxis to move homeless people many miles away.

It would be quite something if Ms Swift stepped in and used a tiny proportion of her immense wealth to show some real love to help homeless people to be housed here rather than be pushed out. After all, she stands to make vast amounts of money from her concerts. Anyone attending should spare a thought for the homeless being pushed out as landlords or hoteliers cash in.

Pop mega star Taylor Swift brings here Eras Tour to Murrayfield Stadium in Edinburgh next weekend (Picture: Andre Dias Nobre/AFP via Getty Images)

Neil Anderson, Edinburgh

Rail revival

Alastair Dalton is a little unfair to describe Fife bus services as “flighty and slow”, when he praises the reopening of the line to Levenmouth (Scotsman, 30 May). The bus services aren't perfect, but they are affordable and offer at least some alternative to car, taxi and those Beeching-blighted rail links which survive in eastern regions. .

However, much more is now expected of the SNP, if they wish to fulfil their “ambitious budget to tackle climate change” – announced by John Swinney back in 2010. That his first such project as finance minister was one to double potential traffic CO2 across the Forth, by doubling the number of road bridges, was unfortunate, but he’s on the right track now – if he’ll forgive the pun.

The next steps are to inject cash into further sustainable transport links. The line from Dalmeny to Linlithgow currently carries only one solitary direct Glasgow service a day, meaning that Fifers are forced to trundle laboriously into Haymarket if they wish to get anywhere west.

A direct line from Leven to Glasgow might yet see a return of the hordes who travelled to the East Neuk for the “holy days”... as our west coast “visitors” said it (and while you're at it John, can we please have a direct line to St Andrews?). Bring back the bucket 'n’ spade brigade!

Bruce Whitehead, Edinburgh

Liberal Liz

An interesting editorial in yesterday’s Scotsman – “Is Liz Truss a Tory?” Well, in the classical sense of the term, no she isn’t.

Firstly, she is an ideologue, in a party that, historically, is suspicious of ideology, left or right. Secondly, she is a 19th century Classical Liberal, small state, free market and all, which is pursued with ideological zeal ! A most unconservative lady.

William Ballantine, Bo’ness, West Lothian

Labour pains

Richard Allison (Letters, 30 May) gives a timely warning about the Labour Party. When Labour came to office in 1997, the national debt was a mere £350 billion When voted out in 2010, after 13 years of public spending – that gave a false illusion of prosperity – that debt had risen to £900bn.

An earlier Labour government of James Callaghan , had to borrow from the International Monetary Fund in 1979, and also left us with 26 per cent inflation, which doubled prices every 30 months.

Be careful what you vote for.

Malcolm Parkin, Kinneswood, Perth & Kinross

Poverty success

According to a recent Joseph Rowntree Foundation report (2023), Scotland no longer has any areas of the country included in the list of the 25 most deprived areas of the UK, they are now all south of the border. In other words, in spite of the limited powers of devolution, the SNP Scottish Government has been relatively successful in lifting some of the poorest in our society out of poverty.

Also, although it might not be appreciated by many, especially those wedded to the BBC for their “news”, the NHS in Scotland is ‘performing’ better than the NHS in England and Wales on most directly comparable measures. That said, this coming General Election is not about governance at Holyrood but about governance at Westminster which has overall responsibility for growing the UK economy (which has repeatedly “crashed” due to the misguided actions of the likes of Gordon Brown and Liz Truss) and for the provision of public services (including local council services) that are failing across the UK.

Perhaps it is not surprising that the Labour Party in Scotland would seemingly prefer to avoid serious debate on Westminster failings, as even though in the key service of education PISA scores for the UK have slumped (maths and science scores lowest since 2006), Labour-run Wales (which still has a greater focus on test results than Scotland since the OECD-backed introduction of Curriculum for Excellence) has the lowest UK PISA rankings in all three measures of science, maths and reading.

Stan Grodynski, Longniddry, East Lothian

No integrity

Still Michael Matheson shamelessly clings onto his job as an MSP (Scotsman, 30 May) despite being heavily sanctioned by his parliamentary colleagues and despite many members of the public being of the view that he is no longer fit to be a parliamentary representative.

Mr Matheson’s integrity is irreparably damaged in the eyes of many of the people and yet John Swinney and Kate Forbes inexplicably support his continuance as an SNP MSP. Why? In contrast, former SNP MP Margaret Ferrier paid the ultimate price for her Covid journeys because Westminster has Recall rules which enable constituents to call time on politicians whom they no longer wish to represent them. It’s a travesty that similar facilities don’t apply to Holyrood.

Bob MacDougall, Kippen, Stirling

Asset management

Hitherto conspicuously absent from the SNP’s election campaigning, Nicola Sturgeon now says she’ll take part, albeit somewhat vaguely (Scotsman, 30 May). She’s unable to state whether she’ll campaign alongside John Swinney, leaving us to wonder whether, despite his claims, he considers her an electoral asset. Instead, she talks about campaigning in ways she thinks are “helpful to candidates”.

Sturgeon was greeted with shouts of “scum” from the public outside the Covid inquiry. Surely her presence will serve as a reminder that the SNP, under her leadership, was, despite the efforts of front-line professionals, responsible for falling Scottish educational standards, lengthening NHS waiting times, soaring drug deaths, a risible ferry procurement process, rising taxes and an A9 with no imminent prospect of being dualled. And she let down nationalists by repeatedly promising a referendum yet never delivering.

I'm struggling to think of a single way Sturgeon’s support could assist an SNP candidate. Surely she’ll be more help to their opponents?

Martin Redfern, Melrose, Scottish Borders

Arc of insolvency

Selective memories are characteristic of nationalism. In extolling Iceland and Ireland as role models, Colin McAllister (Letters, 29 May) doesn't mention their membership of Alex Salmond’s “arc of prosperity” and its 2008 transformation into an “arc of insolvency”, with the Icelandic and Irish banks requiring international bailouts, key roles in financial rescues being played by Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling when they had time to spare from dealing with the antics of Fred the Shred.

And whatever mistakes were made in the governance of Ireland before 1921, its current success in attracting international enterprises is not only helped by a very generous tax regime, but by a vigorous university system going back to Trinity College founded by Queen Elizabeth in 1591 and the establishment in 1845 of state-funded Colleges at Cork, Galway and Belfast by Sir Robert Peel, institutions that have gone on to be successful despite being very vigorously attacked during their gestation and birth as “godless colleges” by Daniel O'Connell and very senior Catholic prelates.

I declare an interest as a former external examiner and assessor of professorial appointments at Queens University Belfast.

Hugh Pennington, Aberdeen

Tourist tax

The owners of one of Scotland’s largest offshore wind farms, Beatrice, have been ordered to pay more than £33m after breaking a condition of its licence.

Before any tourist tax is inflicted on overnight relatives desperate to visit their nearest and dearest in city centre hospitals, why not use that vast sum to reduce hotel bills, and fund improvements to our tourist infrastructure and countryside, which the wind industry has so comprehensively wrecked?

George Herraghty, Lhanbryde, Moray

Policy goals

Yes it is hard to believe but much of the public finds the General Election boring. Especially this year, when it’s going on too long, and Professor Sir John Curtice is hardly alone in knowing the result!

I suggest that we spice it up. Scrap the leaders’ televised debates and instead get Rishi and Sir Keir to take five penalties each.

John V Lloyd, Inverkeithing, Fife

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