Why should visitors see our Vermeer for free? - readers' letters

Entry to the National Gallery of Scotland is free (Picture: Lisa Ferguson)

The other day I just missed my bus at the foot of The Mound in Edinburgh. So, with 20 minutes to spare until the next one, I popped into the National Gallery of Scotland to see the wonderful Vermeer there on loan. I was out again in time to catch my bus. It cost me nothing.

However, I noticed that the gallery was packed full of tourists and, of course, it also cost them nothing.

Many visitors are surprised at this. Where else outside the UK are the national galleries free? Not the Louvre, not the Uffizzi and not the Prado. Even the King’s Gallery down the road at Holyrood charges a tenner for a much smaller exhibition space.

The arts world is crying out for cash (when were they not? But this time they really are desperate) and it must cost an enormous sum to maintain and staff these galleries. Is it not possible to devise a scheme whereby a reasonable entry fee is charged but exemptions made for UK residents and children under the age of, say, 16?

I am aware that this on its own would only go a small way to solving the cash problem, but it would help. I am also aware that this argument has been put forward before and nothing has happened. But if it is repeated often enough then perhaps something might be done.

Michael Grey, Edinburgh

Maggie’s fault

John Swinney has blamed long-dead Margaret Thatcher for the mess in which Scotland languishes in 2024. She died in 2013 and was last Prime Minister in 1990.

Was it then the spirit of the Iron Lady that induced the ferries fiasco – perhaps by undue influence on the ministers who made the catastrophically wrong decisions on fuel and much else? Or force the then First Minister into the Bifab disaster? Or somehow prevent the A9 being dualled?

Did she exert spiritual pressure on SNP ministers to leave hundreds of millions of EU money allocated to Scotland unspent? Did she force fake embassies upon us at horrendous cost?

Whatever else she did, she is still eternally active and living in the minds of even the present SNP leaders.

If the SNP get hammered on Thursday will that be all her fault also?

Alexander McKay, Edinburgh

Naive Nationalists

It is generally very depressing that the high proportion of Scots that are Nationalists and crave independence are so naive and house totally unrealistic economic ideals.

There were three such letters published in The Scotsman of 28 June. First we have Geraldine Prince quoting Karl Marx with an apparent desire to have Scotland become an undemocratic, totalitarian state. Then we have a paranoid Elizabeth Scott fearing that the English are on their way to steal “Scotland’s” water and that an “Tartan Army” should descend upon Westminster to oppose this.

Finally we have DW Lowden proposing that Holyrood should be entrusted with dispensing 100 per cent of Scotland’s public expenditure! Well, sorry, but I don’t trust Holyrood to get my state pension to me every month or be able to protect our nation from attack when they haven’t even managed to take full responsibility for the welfare spending devolved to them in 2016!

Scotland is short of billions of pounds required to regenerate its NHS and education. Those billions could very quickly be raised by getting rid of the useless MSPs of all colours who play pretend politics but do nothing but mismanage whatever project or legislation they get their hands on, together with all the bureaucracy and special advisers that go with them!

There is far too much money wasted on over-governing every aspect of our daily lives and it breeds nothing but dissatisfaction and division.

Change the rules of Westminster’s electoral system to wholly proportional representation and let the local councils get on with taking care of local matters.

Michael Officer, Edinburgh

Council tax

Obviously this is a season to find fault with the SNP! Can I highlight the council tax banding review promised by them back in the day?

As background and for information my local valuation board have the following house values to decide house banding on change of ownership.

Band C: £35k-£45k

Band D: £45k-£58k

Band E: £58k-£80k

Band F: £80k-£106k

On this basis, the majority of houses sold recently would fall into Band F or even Band G.

Those still occupying the same house prior to the revaluation in early-1990s will be fortunate to still fall within a low band for valuation – bands C and D. While this is fine for the few, the majority who live next door to the “few” will feel hard done by and while not wishing to be a killjoy we must wonder if this situation is good for the community, let alone hard-pressed councils seeking extra revenue.

I might have missed it, but my perusal of party election manifestos failed to highlight a review of existing council tax banding or a review of the efficiency of this tax in the first place. We wonder why even the progressive SNP seem to duck this one.

T Lewis, Coylton, South Ayrshire

Fair’s fair

Labour intends to levy VAT on fees charged by independent schools.

Presumably, it is planning to do likewise at universities, which are also private sector bodies with registered charity status? Or is Labour going to discriminate solely against children at private schools not old enough to vote?

Norman Harvey, Edinburgh

No consistency

Keir Starmer assures us that if any of his candidates had been under investigation for betting on the date of the election then they would have been out the door immediately. Very reassuring.

However when Angela Rayner was accused of tax evasion recently he couldn’t do enough to back her. Is this early evidence that there is going to be one rule for us but another for the Labour elite?

Ken Currie, Edinburgh

Good Samaritan

The parable of the Good Samaritan is as relevant today as it was in 1st century Judea, perhaps even more so. Sadly, on the question of the stricken immigrants we all too quickly pass them by on the other side of the English Channel, in which far too many of them drown, salving our consciences by fobbing them off to ‘safe’ Rwanda.

Our country, and indeed continent, with our ageing population, desperately need an influx of immigrants to make what would be a much needed contribution to so many areas of our society, not least our birth rate and age profile.

There are millions of immigrant Scots, welcomed in every continent throughout the world with open arms. Perhaps it is the turn of post-imperial Europe to offer a welcome to our brothers and sisters from many stricken parts of the world to share at last our common humanity.

Ian Petrie, Edinburgh

Troubling twin

I don’t disagre with Perer Hopkins’ view that Edinburgh Council’s decision to abandon a proposed link with Kaohsiung in Taiwan is “an abject surrender” (Letters, 27 June).

But surely the bigger question is who on earth proposed this link in the first place and why?

I would be surprised if more than 0.001 per cent of the population of Edinburgh had ever heard of the city. And surely there must be one councillor or official astute enough to foresee that there would inevitably be a strong reaction from the Chinese government?

Robert Cairns, Ceres, Fife

Biden blunder

US President Joe Biden’s mental abilities were already problematic four years ago, and Barack Obama once said “don't underestimate Joe’s ability to mess things up”. But it was Obama who made him president.

Biden was no doubt a wise choice as his first term vice-president, to widen his own appeal, but Obama should and could have chosen a younger person for VP in his second term.

Also, is the current system, designed in an agricultural society 240 years ago, right for the “leader of the free world” facing several totalitarian regimes globally? The United States is in near-constant election mode every two years; a longer-term view is needed for a modern, world-leading industrial economy.

Maybe a first presidential term of six years followed by four years if re-elected, would be a good start, and would still fit in with the existing Congressional terms.

John Birkett, St Andrews, Fife

Back in the swing

The reaction to President Biden’s performance in the recent debate with his rival reminds me of Eisenhower’s bid for re-election.

He had been ill and was clearly below par but the people running his campaign had him shown out on the golf course at every opportunity to prove he had what it took to be president. As I recall the tactic was successful.

S Beck, Edinburgh

Negative football

Do you think Gareth Southgate and his English football team will ever realise that they are supposed to be in the entertainment business?

There’s less boring activity in all the engineering workshops combined throughout the land.

Stan Hogarth, Strathaven, South Lanarkshire

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