Readers' Letters: Change the voting system to improve turnout

He bemoans low turnout, but doesn’t mention a key reason many voters don’t take part – the perception that their vote will make no difference to the outcome. ​In many constituencies they are right. With six parties in play, in many more constituencies the result will be a coin flip, with the winner under first past the post winning by a handful of votes while the overwhelming majority voted for “anybody else”.

​More than ever we need to change the voting system so that every vote counts.

John Thomas, Kirknewton, West Lothian

Red card

As someone who regularly visits the delightful town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, I’m saddened by the outdated treatment of their football team, Berwick Rangers, by both the FA and SFA (Scotsman, 18 March).

True, Berwick is geographically (just) in England, but practicalities dictate that the football team plays its matches in the Scottish Lowland League. Just where are the FA and SFA coming from? Surely in the interests of football they can come to a mature agreement for this club. Why should the chairman, Kevin Dixon be funding the team from his own pocket?

Berwick is a wonderful hybrid town, the border between Scotland and England is fluid and you can even buy The Scotsman newspaper easily there.

Fiona Garwood, Edinburgh

Offord’s vision

I read Brian Montieth’s “Offord Derangement” article (17 March) and Murdo Fraser’s piece on the Conservatives’ policies for growth and taxation (18 March). I also listened to Martin Geissler’s “Scotcast” interview with the Reform Scotland leader.

The main difference between Malcolm Offord and Murdo Fraser seems to be the latter and his party have been saying similar things for the part 19 years – and Mr Offord sounds like he means it.

In his interview he pointed out that Holyrood public spending is 55 per cent of GDP, compared to 43 per cent in 1999, with no discernible improvement in services. This compares to 44 per cent for the UK and 42 per cent for New Zealand, same population as Scotland and four times our land mass,

He also highlighted the Information Commissioner's recent comments about the “staggering” number of tax-funded quangos in Scotland, noting many are “invisible” – and the opportunity for existing, accountable public service bodies to absorb many or all of them.

While I have concerns about Reform’s inexperience and the influence of Nigel Farage, I hope that able, fresh faces like Mr Offord and the best of his colleagues get elected in May, hold the likely SNP government and the opposition’s feet to the fire and inject some energy, probity, focus and reality into Scottish affairs, ideally by working with Conservatives and Labour.

Allan Sutherland, Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire

Milky Way

Perhaps the most eloquent feature in yesterday’s Scotsman was the stunning double-page photograph of the Milky Way, estimated to have “100-400 billion stars and at least as many planets”.

You might say that this photograph is a magnificent commentary on the rest of the news, political, economic, social and sporting, out-headlining every headline, and laughing at the absurdity of our human self-importance.We humans don’t inhabit the centre of the universe, though we behave as if we did. Our posing and posturing are pathetic.

Our hope must be that there is intelligent life elsewhere, among the 100-400 billion stars, who revere and respect their habitation more than we do ours.

Where is God in all this? An intelligent creation posits an intelligent Creator, of whom no religion has the monopoly. A God, by any other name, or none, surely abhors the bitter, and often lethal, squabbles among them, and cries out “not in my name”. If only we in the Milky Way could enjoy the milk of a human kindness, which, all too often, has soured.

Ian Petrie, Edinburgh

Majority view

A major duty of an MSP is, surely, to represent the majority opinion of their constituents. A large majority of Scots have indicated that they were in favour of the Assisted Dying Bill.

So how was it that the said bill was voted down by a majority of the MSPs? Is it that the majority of our representatives consider the rest of us as “too wee, too poor, too stupid”, as Mr Salmond once famously said in a different context?

Peter Taylor, Jemimaville, Highland

Ferries fiasco

Almost 16 years ago the SNP signed a fixed price contract of £97 million for two ferry boats. As of today, with the costs nearing £500m, neither boat is actually in service (your report, 18 March). John Swinney seems to have adopted the view that if he ignores this scandal it will just go away.

What is it going to take for this SNP government to admit that so many projects are incomplete and hopelessly over budget, when not one SNP MSP appears concerned about these failures?

Bruce Proctor, Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire

Sinking fast

Waiting for CalMac Ferries to provide a functioning ferry service and an SNP competent enough to ensure one is a form of assisted dying.

Dr John Perivolaris, Dippen, Isle of Arran

University funding

As a member of a Scottish university’s governing body, I am increasingly concerned by the financial pressures facing our higher education sector. Recent developments at Edinburgh, the University of the Highlands and Islands and, more acutely, Dundee, as well as those we face at Aberdeen, demonstrate that these challenges are not isolated incidents or the result of poor management. They reflect a structural funding model that no longer aligns with the responsibilities placed on universities.

University governing bodies across Scotland are working hard to ensure financial sustainability, but even the strongest governance cannot offset declining real-terms funding, rising costs, and growing dependence on volatile international income. Without a stable and realistic long-term settlement, institutions will be forced into decisions that risk diminishing the educational, economic and social contribution universities make to Scotland.

If we value a world-class higher education system, we must recognise that sustaining it is a shared responsibility and I hope that the recently announced ‘Scotland’s Future Framework’ will lead this work. The current trajectory is not sustainable, and it is time for a national conversation about what we expect from our universities – and how we support them to deliver it.

Gary McRae, Interim Senior Governor, University of Aberdeen Court

Taxing times

High tax enthusiast Alan T Kelly (Letters, 18 March) tells us that Britain and the USA once taxed their richest citizens “at rates approaching 80-90 per cent” and that “the more you gained from society, the more you paid back into it”. This casts successful professionals, entrepreneurs and the hard-working business community in the role of robber barons rather than key contributors to growth and employment.

These high taxes Mr Kelly talks about helped create the 1970s recessions. And note that every First World country (like France) which ever introduced wealth taxes eventually abolished them because they stifle economic activity. It’s ironic that Mr Kelly writes from the Republic of Ireland, a country with a rate of corporation tax half that of the UK. Sensible policies like this helped the Irish state transition away from over half a century of abject poverty.

Martin O’Gorman, Edinburgh

Far from special

The precise nature of the so-called “special relationship” between our state and the USA was made very clear by President Trump this week. He described the relationship as “tremendous... the best... the longest... the oldest” but all in the past tense as in his view the Prime Minister in London has recently ruined it by not wading into another illegal attack on a foreign nation as his predecessors had done.

It seems that the special relationship is only special when we do as we are told by the USA, giving unequivocal support for whatever action it sees fit to undertake. I do not recall the relationship being so special when General Galtieri tried to take possession of the South Atlantic islands.

How long will it be before we see the government in London dropping the pretence of a special relationship? We need to see an end to international relationships that make calls and demands for us to act without consideration of matters of justice, legality, cost (in all terms, not just finance) and global implications.

In much the same way Scotland must get free of the toxic union with Westminster before Kier Starmer relents and follows President Trump, dragging us with him into another conflict with countries that we would otherwise be able to make peace with. Scotland has the capacity to have influence on the global stage through diplomacy and trade rather than force.

I will be voting in May to take a big step away from abusive international relationships and into a future that we will determine for ourselves.

Ni Holmes, St Andrews, Fife

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