Readers' Letters: Everything seems to be getting worse in Scotland

Page one reveals more misery for cancer patients with treatment times dropping alarmingly.

Then we have the highest delayed discharge figures since records began in 2016. Awful statistics which explain why beds are unavailable for other patients and procedures.

Next up, we discover that the tartan biscuit tin is not as empty as we are told on a daily basis, with the news that Dundee University is to receive a bail-out over three years of £40 million – no doubt this will assist in covering the debts incurred by “free tuition” for Scottish students, that is, those who can get a place at the expense of a fee-paying “foreigner” from over the Border or abroad.

Then on to house building, now at its lowest level since 2012. Anyone with an iota of common sense knows that the best way to stimulate an economy is house building – again the Scottish Government are complicit in this appalling statistic with their net zero restrictions adding exorbitant costs to builders.

And then we have the bloated Civil Service, with almost one manager per member of staff. Another example of the profligacy of the SNP in power.

And to put the tin lid on this depressing read, class sizes in Edinburgh will be breached to “save costs”. Of all these examples of the mess we are in, this is the worst, as we fail our next generation and their prospects go down the tube.

And at the head of all these examples are the failed “Ministers” given top jobs with exorbitant salaries and pensions, most with no experience, some of whom can hardly construct a sentence coherently when interviewed.

While it was a dreary read to start the day, I applaud the Scotsman and its correspondents for their diligence in bringing this to our attention.

The only way to sort this out is at the ballot box in 2026 – but what will be left of our “services” by then? “Not much” is the clear and obvious answer.

David Millar, Lauder, Scottish Borders

Keep it Scottish?

Early this week, the BMA claimed that the NHS is “dying”. The following day more bad news on cancer treatment in Scotland emerges and as we wait for a statement of some kind we are told Health Secretary Neil Gray is on a trip to Japan – is his favourite football team doing a pre-season tour? Is it any wonder that a third of Scots are now forced into using private healthcare – the very thing the NHS was created to prevent.

The problems in the NHS are myriad. But in Scotland they are multiplied by the SNP's apparent insistence on putting a “Scottish” slant on everything – the latest example being the NHS app in wide use south of the Border for years, which had to be somehow “Scottified” for use north of the Border. It is madness. Think of the census fiasco when their insistence on an entirely Scottish version cost millions and left gaps in our records.

Why cannot we have an administration that will concentrate on Scottish matters and attempt to make life better for all Scots and forget the nationalist claptrap?

Alexander McKay, Edinburgh

Line of duty

So the Health Secretary is in Japan? Not only has he left his post at a time of real crisis for those unfortunate Scots recently diagnosed with cancer but his carbon footprint looms large too.

The SNP seems more interested in bailing out the Edinburgh International Book Festival whose previous sponsor, Baillie Gifford, was dumped by those on the left for the firm's perceived links to oil and Israel. Surely this has nothing to do with appearances there by Nicola Sturgeon and friends?

The SNP is failing Scotland in all areas. Holyrood elections are very close. The election can't come soon enough.

Gerald Edwards, Glasgow

What about Wales?

According to Dame Jackie Baillie, the latest figures on NHS Scotland cancer waiting times are “disastrous” and an indication of “the SNP’s mismanagement of the NHS”. If that is indeed the case, then how would Dame Jackie describe the situation in Wales, perhaps “catastrophic”?

In Wales the devolved Labour government has not only given up (since 2019) on reporting the 31-day target for the start of treatment, which NHS Scotland is achieving in 94.1 per cent cases and NHS England in 91.3 per cent of cases, NHS Wales is only achieving the 62-day target for initial referral to start of treatment in 60.5 per cent of cases. On the 62-day target, NHS Scotland at 68.9 per cent is performing 13.9 per cent better than Wales and NHS England at 69.9 per cent is performing 15.5 per cent better.

Of course, the broader picture is that across the UK the NHS is struggling as cancers are increasingly suspected earlier and people are living longer (NHS Scotland has seen 17.5 per cent and 6.3 per cent increases in 62-day and 31-day referrals since the pandemic) while staffing levels continue to suffer as a result of Brexit and hostile UK Government immigration policies.

Stan Grodynski, Longniddry, East Lothian

Fair play

Murdo Fraser is right to criticise the Robertson Trust's half-baked proposal of a guaranteed income (Perspective, 25 June). Yet the principle is valid, provided it's paid from resource values, as in Norway and Alaska.

More generally, publicly created land values should be restored to the citizenry, with them deciding which state services they wish to purchase. Childless people should not, for example, be taxed to pay for other peoples’ kids' education.

George Morton, Rosyth, Fife

Turbine whoppers

Good on Councillor Ruraidh Stewart and Skye residents protesting against the developers’ plans to “repower” Ben Aketil wind farm, near Dunvegan (your report, 23 June). The downright dishonesty in claiming larger turbines are more efficient is breathtaking, and shame on the remote Scottish Government for falling for the spin!

Did our brick-sized mobile phones double or half in size as they became more efficient? The farcical industry claims that larger turbines are more “efficient” could not be further from the truth!

Current turbine blades have been tweaked, over many years, to the nth degree, but the inexorable laws of physics demand that all that can now be done is to make the turbines even larger, even more materials hungry, even more space consuming, even more destructive to our landscapes, even more difficult to recycle, even more damaging, even more unsightly and, with blades that travel in excess of 200mph, even more lethal to wildlife.

They are foisting giant, offshore turbines onto beleaguered rural communities, onshore. Far from boasting about “super” turbines we are in reality being subjected to yet another load of whoppers from the wind industry!

George Herraghty, Elgin, Moray

Price of life

Now that inflation has pounced onto food and airfare prices once again, it just highlights that the cost of living crisis is real and pounding everyone's pockets, as previously.

While Sir Keir Starmer talks about cutting green levies for business, by up to 25 per cent – what about everyone else. So with supermarkets offering their own special deals with store card advantages and high street stores offering continual all year round sales, one has to ask, what is the true and real price of anything, these days?

Archie Mackinnon, Glasgow

Unfair attack

During the weekend Sir Keir Starmer defended the US bombing of Iran when he said it was necessary to “alleviate” the threat of Iran developing a nuclear weapon.

I wonder if he recalls an incident during a speech by Benjamin Netanyahu at a meeting of the UN Security Council in 2012, when the Israeli leader brandished a cartoon of a bomb and insisted Iran was close to developing a nuclear weapon. In 2015, the US estimated Iran could produce enough fuel for a nuclear bomb in 12 months if it was so inclined. In an article published on 13 September 2021, the New York Times claimed Iran was just a month away from being able to produce sufficient fuel for a nuclear bomb! So why has Iran not produced that bomb long before now?

Our Prime Minister also said at the weekend, “We call on Iran to return to the negotiating table and reach a diplomatic solution to end this crisis”. Perhaps Sir Keir should ask himself who caused the crisis by mounting an illegal attack on a sovereign state? It has evidently also slipped his mind that Iran was at the negotiating table when it was attacked!

Alan Woodcock, Dundee

Hold on to hope

Amidst all the discussion around assisted dying it is important to distinguish between the terms “terminal” and “incurable” when describing life-threatening disease. Terminal should only be used when death is imminent – days, weeks or at most a few months. In recent media announcements several famous people have had their advanced cancers described as terminal, when they are obviously very much alive and in some cases only in the early stages of treatment. Today most cancers – even at stage 4 – are treatable, where appropriate management can result in good quality of life for considerable periods of time. Incurable, yes, but so are many common conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, arthritis etc.

In many thousands of conversations with patients at the time of their diagnosis and treatment planning I have emphasised that although their disease is incurable it is certainly not a death sentence. Hope is a very valuable medicine in its own right. Doctors should never withhold truth about the seriousness of any illness but the prognosis for any individual depends on their specific response to treatment, and good communication should prevent automatic assumption a diagnosis of cancer implies imminent death.

So please could the media stop using the word terminal as a blanket term for all advanced cancers. Thank you.

(Professor) John F Smyth, Edinburgh

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