Readers’ letters: Erasmus scheme’s benefits far outweigh its costs

One study estimated that the UK’s membership of Erasmus would offer a net benefit of £243m a year, through new income streams to British universities and EU student spending in the UK, with for example almost three times the number of EU students studying in the UK as UK students studying in the EU in 2019-20. (This figure is dwarfed by the “dis-benefit” of Britain not being a member of the EU, estimated to amount to £90 billion a year in lost tax revenue.)

The well-intentioned but flawed Turing scheme, which Erasmus replaces, is based on one-way traffic flow of UK students to 162 countries without reciprocal arrangements necessarily with these countries.

It also required students to meet their own upfront costs until a placement has been secured – a disincentive for students without the bank of mum and dad – whereas Erasmus reverses this, offering (withdraw-able ) grants pending approval of an application. Erasmus also extends to further education teaching staff exchanges.

The longer-term benefits of Erasmus, albeit less quantifiable, include a strengthening of cultural, economic, scientific, technological and other ties between the UK and EU countries, especially if the so-called special relationship between the UK and the US continues to weaken under a Trump administration and beyond.

Graham Atherton, Edinburgh

Tools for the job

Have you ever tried to carry out DIY without having the optimum tool kit to make the job easier. I suspect that many of us have and have tales of misadventures to boot.

I raise this because it must be almost impossible run a business successfully without having the experience and knowledge to navigate the intricacies of stock control, finance, health and safety plus employment law, for example.

Now turn this around and ask yourself why we would elect individuals to our parliaments who in general have very little experience of business or negotiating with a workforce or suppliers. Indeed, many of those chosen to stand have worked as advisers within the party system.

Then add another player such as the Civil Service, which provides guidance to governments. This is yet another set of officials who mostly have little actual experience of running successful business and have been employed through selection from university and promoted as a safe pair of hands to the higher echelon of the service.

I suggest that this scenario is a recipe for failure and an indication of why a litany of failure continues to haunt this country. Failure in personnel selection right across the board from representatives through to advisers means suboptimal outcomes at the very best.

I suggest only those who have experienced business success and failure at the highest level are capable of helping this country move forward, bearing in mind that most of the right people wouldn’t touch government with a barge pole.

However, there has to be a way of involving those with the right credentials – but this would involving shredding a lot of egos to get there. Probably an almost impossible task at present.

A Lewis, Coylton, South Ayrshire

Blethering on

Thanks to the largesse of the Barnett Formula, the Scottish NHS has been able to build the Parkhead Hub, which opened this month. It cost £67 million and provides GP practices, dental services, social care, mental health and addiction services and a pharmacy for thousands of people.

The cost of all ongoing SNP-led public inquiries is £205m. £46m has been spent so far on the Covid-19 inquiry – and no end in sight. £29m on the Scottish Hospitals Inquiry – and still more to come. £26m on the Sheku Bayu inquiry – and it isn’t even finished. And we all know what the conclusions will be: “failures of systems; lessons will be learned; new guidance put in place”.

The money spent on the ongoing inquiries would finance another three health and social care hubs across Scotland – more when these talking shops are finally wound up. And many more if Audit Scotland had the power to take a red pen and a ruler to the rest of the SNP government’s waste. Politics is about priorities and health care comes before blether.

William Loneskie, Lauder, Scottish Borders

Means testing

Writing this may have my long dead father’s grave rumbling. But I am now convinced there is an easy solution to some at least of Labour’s problems, at UK and Scotland levels.

At a stroke this could have prevented the PR disaster of the original pensioners’ winter payment disaster and allayed much of the two-child limit quagmire into which they got themselves entangled, as well as several other proposals to raise revenue that were discussed.

Most sensible people of every party accept there is no bottomless pit of cash from which to dole out benefit payments endlessly. Every penny paid out comes out of someone else’s pocket.

Why not, then, adopt a means tested benefit system? In this digital age surely it could be in place relatively quickly and efficiently and made close to foolproof from cheats.

No more would we be handing out cold weather payments to millionaires, or more multi-child benefit to clearly wealthy parents. What is remotely socialist about providing free meals for the children of well-off parents?

It would be a simple rule: he or she who needs, gets.

Alexander McKay, Edinburgh

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