Readers' Letters: Edinburgh deserves to fly low in list of best airports

My guess is this spokesman doesn’t fly and works from home, otherwise he might know what’s going on. The Which? findings accord with my and many of my friends’ experience of the airport.

The "Turnhouse Beerhall and Shopping Mall” (TBSM) is not primarily run as an airport; for example, flights were suspended in May when potholes appeared on the runway. Everything, it would seem, is geared to maximising the return on the investment of its owners.

The TBSM is now majority owned by Vinci, a French investment company. It is to be hoped that, unlike the previous majority shareholder, Vinci will actually invest in developing and improving the much neglected infrastructure of TBSM. To elevate the passenger experience, even to minimal levels of acceptability, will require substantial investment: approach roads need to be unmuddled and parking made available at fair rates (and no surge pricing), black taxis need to get closer to the airport especially to look after disabled passengers, a full set of CT scanners needs to be installed in the baggage checking area, escalators and lifts need to be installed to aid passenger movement without endless stairs, more electronic passport machines need to be installed, generally more space needs to be created with comfortable seating.

We arrived back from Pisa on Tuesday at 5pm along with three plane-loads of passengers who had then to queue out onto the apron before getting into the Border Control area to present their passports. Overhead TBSM had the cheek to have screens welcoming folks to GREAT (in large heavy script) Britain. Our foreign visitors had a miserable experience and we Scots were embarrassed. Transport Secretary Fiona Hyslop should invite Gordon Dewar, the CEO, to attend Parliament and explain what Vinci plan to do to retrieve our reputation as a warm, welcoming nation.

(Prof) Robert Cormack, FRSE, Edinburgh

Held back

Like others, C Lowson (Letters, 6 September) forgets that it is Westminster to blame for the cost-of-living crisis which has led to higher wage claims and that every part of the UK is affected by the £22 billion black hole that Labour blames for its austerity as it impacts on the finances of the devolved governments.

Post-Brexit, Westminster made a power grab of Holyrood’s autonomy via the Internal Market Act which Labour shows no sign of amending. Under the Sewel Convention, devolved consent is normally required, except when the UK Government decides that it knows best. It wasn’t the SNP picking fights when Westminster sabotaged the Deposit Return Scheme.

As Daniel Johnson’s car crash interview on Radio Scotland on Wednesday proved, Labour hates comparisons with the much poorer performance in Wales. The NHS waiting list in Wales has reached another record high, with about a fifth of the Welsh population waiting to be seen, and fewer than half the 20,000 homes promised by Labour in its manifesto at the last Senedd election have been built. Labour has blamed UK inflation for a rise in costs but this explanation only seems to be acceptable where Labour is power.

Despite limited fiscal powers, Scotland has lower child poverty than many northern and western European countries, while only Romania, Spain and Bulgaria have higher rates of child poverty than England or Wales.

During a Radio Four interview last month, Henry McLeish said that in the Labour/Lib Dem Scottish Executive years, the Labour First Minister would have a weekly call with the Prime Minister, who would tell him what to bring before Holyrood, and that only 20 per cent of the Programme for Government was decided by the Labour/Lib Dem Executive.

Fraser Grant, Edinburgh

What cuts?

“Cuts cuts cuts” proclaim the SNP, and it's all Westminster's fault and due to Brexit, etc etc. Misleading nonsense.

In fact, the budget total has increased. It's dishonest to construct headlines only about “cuts” when it's simply about redistributions between different spending areas within an overall increasing budget.

We can look in more detail at the claim of Westminster “austerity”. In the five years to 2023-24, PSE (public sector expenditure) for Scotland rose by £23 billion but revenues only rose by £13bn (£78,598 to £111,230 for PSE and £65,442 to £88,546 for revenue respectively in pounds million). So where did the extra £10bn come from? No sign of Westminster austerity there. Indeed, the block grant is at record levels (excluding exceptional Covid expenditure). Scotland enjoys public expenditure of about £10,000 for a family of four more than rest of UK, despite revenue per head being similar.

No mention, either, of the SNP Finance Secretary's botching of tax devolution negotiations which will cost Scotland billions of pounds and will continue to do so, as detailed in an article in The Scotsman a couple of years ago by John McLaren. This is many times bigger than the £500 million the current Finance Secretary is desperate to construct and blame on Westminster.

Further, Brexit could have been lessened if Nicola Sturgeon had not instructed abstention in the vote for the Kenneth Clarke proposal in March 2019. The SNP threw away the chance to remain in the customs union so can't complain now. Anyway, around 18 months ago, The Scotsman carried an article in which the SNP were boasting about “increased” Scottish trade with the EU, which was after Brexit.

In summary, no cuts, we spend £22bn more than we earn, budget has increased, SNP pressed for the very costly tax devolution, and stopped us being in the customs union.

£500 million cuts? Let's talk about the billions thrown away by the SNP, or the massive deficit we can enjoy because of the Union Dividend.

Jonathan Davidson, Stow, Scottish Borders

Return to Oz

Colourful language used by Stan Grodynski (Letters, 3 September) as he thunders on about “political shysters feeding from the trough of the wealthy British Establishment”. It brings to mind reading an English language edition of the Russian Communist Party’s Pravda newspaper back in the 1980s.

Did Mr Grodynski by any chance ever write for this esteemed publication? In pure conspiracy theory mode, he speaks melodramatically of Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrats being “not only intent on preventing independence” but also “scurrilously intent on thwarting democracy itself, as even their own polling indicates that self-determination is what the people of Scotland truly desire”.

Mr Grodynski has evidently brainwashed himself into believing that both the 2014 referendum and this year’s general election were somehow rigged.

Such bluster and pyrotechnics are reminiscent of a terrifying Wizard of Oz in the eponymous 1939 film, while John Swinney’s performance at the half-empty SNP conference last week was that of the panic-stricken charlatan hiding behind a curtain, frantically working the wizard’s controls.

Martin O’Gorman, Edinburgh

Council fat cats

Councils in Scotland are always pleading poverty, there are potholes everywhere, but they seem to be able to pay salaries of over £100,000 to numerous staff.

The TaxPayers’ Alliance recently released their latest edition of their Town Hall Rich List for 2022/23 revealing the numbers of council employees with total remuneration of over £100,000. Remuneration includes salary, bonuses, benefits in kind payments, loss of office payments, pension contributions and pension payments.

In Scotland Aberdeen City has nine with a salary of £100,000 or over and a top salary £199,839. City of Edinburgh has 13 over £100,000 and the highest is £193,306. West Lothian has 13 over £100,000 with the top one on £186,370 and two on £163,013. However, pride of place in Scotland must go to Glasgow City with 42 over £100,000 with the highest on £278,469, another five over £200,000 and ten on £185,022.

These highly paid officials have allowed the arrears of Council Tax to escalate. The total for Scotland was £1.3 billion as at March 2023 with Edinburgh at £15 million, Glasgow City at £44m and Aberdeen at £100m. No wonder our Council Tax bills are high and services cut.

Clark Cross, Linlithgow, West Lothian

Some might say

What is it about nationalist health ministers and their relationships with the truth? In the SNP's latest ministerial embarrassment, Neil Gray first denied emphatically that he was waiting in an online queue for Oasis tickets while chairing a meeting on Alzheimer's in Scotland and then owned up and admitted that he was.

Who is advising Mr Gray? Could it by any chance be one Michael Matheson?

Alexander McKay, Edinburgh

Days and confused

Who decides when it's “World (anything and everything) Day”? Yesterday it was apparently “World Shore-bird Day”, according to the internet. Just who designates these days?

Is it just a random choice by a laptop company? Also, can we please have a “World Nothing Day” so we can have a break from the News? Faint hope, since somebody's always having a hellish time somewhere. I look forward to “World Nobody-Do-Anything Day!”

Steve Hayes, Leven, Fife

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