Readers' letters: For Programme for Government read More of the Same

Nothing earth shattering – more promises about tackling drugs, repeating historic promises that only highlight failures; more promises on A&E waiting times, despite targets that haven’t been met for five years. More efficient public services, as if the increase in public sector jobs over the last 20 years never happened.

We are promised more rationalisation, but does anyone honestly think that while national priorities such as murder investigations improved, with the closures of local call centres, closures of local police stations, reductions in the number of officers in total, and increases in the number of officers on restricted duties, that rationalisation has improved the police service?

The minister in charge of public sector reform expects the payroll (which has actually grown again this year), to fall by 0.5 per cent per annum. If a business was in this much trouble, a CEO proposing reductions of only 0.5 per cent of a bloated payroll would find themselves amongst that 0.5 per cent.

For all Mr Swinney’s fine words, there seems little in the PfG that will drive growth in the economy. A bigger economy means more jobs; More jobs means more tax revenue, more people self-reliant, and more money to help those in genuine need. A virtuous circle we should all be talking about.

Instead, 20 years after the first SNP government, we are stuck with vague promises that are likely to fail. Here, past performance is an accurate indicator of future performance. Same (un-dualled) road, different driver. Yet the opposition refuses to work together to defeat them at elections. Until they do, the current voting system will give the SNP a majority of seats and we may be stuck with them forever.

Brian Barbour, Haddington, East Lothian

Swan song

John Swinney has bitten off more than he can chew, with his plans to slash health boards facing a backlash (your report, 2 September).

Despite repeated claims, the SNP has never been a safe pair of hands for Scotland's NHS. The latest horrendous figures for A&E waiting times are just more proof.

This new move is way out of the SNP’s comfort zone and this will inevitably crash and burn. Similarly, the few details announced about minimum supermarket prices strongly suggests it is doomed too, and Swinney knows it.

The SNP scraped a win at Holyrood last May. Its inability to deliver is now going to be showcased “front and centre” of its new term in office. The SNP has remained pre-eminent in Scottish politics only because of the lack of a credible opposition but even that is looking to be not enough to paper over these cracks.

Mr Swinney is simply presiding over his own, and his party’s, swan song. Nothing lasts forever.

Gerald Edwards, Glasgow

Palliative care

Marie Curie welcomes the Scottish government’s commitments to provide financial support for people with a terminal illness facing high energy costs, and to deliver pay parity for hospice staff as set out in this week’s Programme for Government.

However, these measures fall far short of the transformation in palliative care that people across Scotland were promised ahead of the election. Millions rely on high-quality end of life care, yet too often access depends on where someone lives.

Most palliative care is provided in local communities by GPs, community nurses and care home staff – and almost one in three people are currently missing out. Scotland urgently needs national minimum standards for palliative care, backed by clear accountability, so that everyone knows what care and support they can expect, regardless of their diagnosis, postcode or circumstances.

Reforms to the NHS and social care must be relentlessly focused on delivering equity, and ensuring everyone can access the care they need at the end of life. The commitments made earlier this year cannot be allowed to fade. Scotland’s new NHS must deliver equitable, high-quality palliative care for all.

Amy Dalrymple, Head of Policy and Public Affairs, Marie Curie Scotland

New axis of evil

A Lewis (Letters, 3 September) is correct – but it is not only the future of our industry that needs to be saved. Every “frock, imported car, and finished steelwork” and everything else that we buy from China sustains and finances its military, intelligence and security operations both domestically and globally.

It is almost unbelievable, in only 30-odd years since we thought we had “won” the Cold War, and therefore felt safe enough to spend a non-existent “peace dividend”, that our top politicians, diplomats, military attachés, business leaders, academics et al, have effectively handed over our productive capacity and its supply chains, our technological expertise, and much of our energy needs, to a totalitarian regime and its allies – and for what in return? About the same that President Clinton received from North Korea for saving it from mass starvation in the 1990s, ie nil.

The result so far is that the western democracies face a new axis from Belarus through Russia and Iran to China and North Korea, with increasing control of vital raw materials in Africa and elsewhere, and benefiting from several fellow-travellers (including some in the Commonwealth) which are ready to support or turn a blind eye to these axis countries when they deem it opportune, despite also paying lip-service to democratic values.

I fear our grandchildren will not have to wait 50 years to condemn the pusillanimous naivety of our recent and current leadership generations – as evidenced inter alia by our consistently inadequate defence budgets, the Chagos deal, and Trump’s volatility over Ukraine.

John Birkett, St Andrews, Fife

E-bike misery

David Linden, deputy convenor of Holyrood’s criminal justice committee, has told Neil Gray that MSPs were increasingly receiving complaints about “young men dressed head to toe in black, sometimes wearing face coverings, zooming around on souped-up e-bikes and e-scooters” (your report, 3 September).

This is not new so why has it taken so long for it to be raised in the Scottish Parliament? In response, the Scottish Justice Secretary said a UK licensing scheme for e-bikes and e-scooters should be considered amid concerns of antisocial behaviour and crime.

However in Scotland e-scooters are already illegal and in England private e-scooters are illegal yet can be seen on every UK road and pavement.

Police Scotland has not been proactive on this issue so Scotland’s Chief Constable Jo Farrell must immediately be instructed to act and confiscate and destroy all e-scooters.

E-bikes and e-scooters have been responsible for deaths and injuries not only to the riders but pedestrians on pavements,

The UK government needs to quickly pass legislation that e-bikes should have a number plate and be licensed, pay road tax and be insured.

At the same time they need to outlaw masks, hoodies and face coverings so that criminals and antisocial youths can be identified and punished and their e-bikes and e-scooters destroyed.

Clark Cross, Linlithgow, West Lothian

Abolish whips

I completely agree with Doug Clark’s criticism of the parliamentary voting system (Letters, 1 September). The remedy is relatively simple. If party whips were to be abolished and all forms of inducement to make members vote a certain way were forbidden Doug’s parliamentary democracy would be achieved.

Donald Carmichael, East Linton, East Lothian

Baby steps

I see Labour MSP Brian Leishman is saying that his party should support calls for a second independence referendum on the condition that the SNP agrees to defer any call for a further referendum for quarter of a century in the event of a vote against independence.

I have news for Mr Leishman; the Scottish independence movement does not belong to the SNP and they have no more right than he does to silence the voice of the sovereign people of Scotland. I think he knows this already and is perhaps hoping to hoodwink the electorate with a new version of the “once in a generation” myth.

Should the powers in the south manipulate another referendum win Mr Leishman will be surprised to learn that the independence movement will not be silent while pursuing a further opportunity to take control of our own country.

Independence will come and Mr Leishman must understand that putting off the inevitable is damaging our nation by prolonging the drain that the union with Westminster puts on our resources. I welcome his tiny step toward our best future and hope that it is not long before his next, bigger step.

Ni Holmes, St Andrews, Fife

Tackle debt

Andy Burnham blames many of the nation’s ills on 40 years of neoliberalism and Thatcherism, saying the country took a wrong turning then. However, it is not difficult to pick holes in this argument. The biggest problem facing the country is government debt, with interest payments of over £100 billion. This is not the fault of neoliberalism – Thatcher would not have countenanced this state of affairs!

William Ballantine, Bo’ness, West Lothian

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