Readers' Letters: Is taxing people more really the SNP's only idea?

After 19 years of doing the same thing, namely tax and spend then tax more and spend more, surely even the most ardent SNP supporter must realise it is time to try something different? Try making Scotland a lower tax economy that encourages wealth creation, and perhaps some of the wealthy payers fleeing the UK would instead flee the rest of the UK and come to Scotland, bringing that badly needed tax revenue with them. And many of the well-paid financial services jobs that high taxes discourage might also come to Scotland.

In the same vein, by encouraging entrepreneurs and job creators, more jobs would flow, fewer people would depend on handouts, and the increased tax revenue would allow money to be allocated to those in genuine need.

So let’s stop the insanity and create an environment that fosters wealth creation, job creation, and the increased tax that would flow – a positive outcome and a real win-win.

Brian Barbour, Haddington, East Lothian

Turn right

Can Scotland really just “keep calm and carry on”? Polls suggest Scotland will still have the SNP as the majority party after May's Holyrood election (“Scottish firms fear ‘bleeding to death’ from huge tax hike”, 23 February).

The talk is of a possible SNP/Liberal Democrat coalition but given the independence situation, just how likely is that? This, therefore, leads us back to an SNP/Green coalition. How can such a position genuinely help Scotland to advance? The Greens adopt a hard Left stance so even higher taxation will loom large. Its policies on drugs are somewhat extreme, as is its fixation on Gaza when this really is a topic that should not feature prominently at Holyrood at all.

Where would this leave Scotland? In all of the calculations, moving to the Right does not really feature. Perhaps it is time it did. Calmness is not enough. The Left is demonstrably not working.

Gerald Edwards, Glasgow

Ferry secret

We were all pleased to hear that the MV Isle of Islay reached the safety of Scotland without incident. No doubt the co-leaders of the Greens were on the banks of the Clyde waving their flags as she powered her way along the river, diesel engines churning the water to a froth, it must have been a grand sight for them.

However, I was a little disturbed to read that many of the proposed ports for this ship will require dredging to accommodate her. I understood that dredging is an ongoing process, is this an additional cost to the operation of the ferry? Shouldn't the government order boats that fit the harbours and not harbours that fit the boats?

John Swinney seemed to be pleased that this boat is here, albeit, somewhat late, but he didn't mention the cost. Is this another little SNP secret, something he would rather the taxpayer doesn't ask about?

Bruce Proctor, Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire

Make or break

The most consequential elephant in the room, looking forward to Thursday's by-election in Gorton and Denton, is surely Andy Burnham. Labour, and Keir Starmer in particular, must be dreading the result.

But for some wheeling and dealing by the NEC, Andy Burnham should be standing as the Labour candidate. To his great credit he's campaigning hard on behalf of the Labour choice, who's a councillor and a friend. His time will surely come. This by-election result will be a make or break moment for Keir Starmer's premiership. It’s a three horse race, featuring Labour, Reform UK and the Greens, in which Labour are far from being the favourites.

The worst possible scenario, would be a split vote on the left, allowing Reform UK to squeeze in and win. For what it's worth, the Greens are the bookies' favourites. I'm wondering about the odds on Keir Starmer's survival.

Ian Petrie, Edinburgh

We need nuclear

I am old enough to have been a schoolboy at the time of the Windscale nuclear disaster and to have visited the locality where I saw dairy farmers pouring milk into ditches to protect the public from radioactive iodine. I disagree with Susan Forde's allegation (Letters, 23 February) that the disaster was linked to serious birth defects. There is no evidence to support her claim.

The only circumstance in which this has been shown to occur comes from laboratory experiments in which male rats have been given massive doses of radiation. In any case, the relevance of the Windscale disaster to nuclear power generation is remote. It wasn't a nuclear power station. Its purpose was to produce plutonium for atom bombs. The heat from the two reactors didn't generate electricity but was blown up the 410 foot high chimneys.

As for Ms Forde's worries about nuclear waste, for more than 80 years it has been stored safely without causing harm to humans in every country except the Soviet Union, never a leader in nuclear safety. I have visited Sellafield and can confirm that its volume is small, miniscule compared to that of the mining waste that fell onto Aberfan killing 116 children and 28 adults.

It is predicted that AI data centres will massively increase the need for electricity generation. If tidal power can be made to work efficiently, and even if AI is a busted flush, I doubt whether it will be anywhere near sufficient to meet our future electricity needs when the wind doesn't blow or the sun doesn't shine, never mind heating our houses with heat pumps or diagnosing illnesses using MRI scanners. Pumped storage doesn't generate new power but only stores that which has already been generated. Nuclear will be needed, in spite of the fear of it shown by people like Ms Forde.

Hugh Pennington, Aberdeen

ET-time?

Donald Trump doesn't know if aliens exist but he has ordered the release of Government UFO files (your report, 21 February). However, such records will not answer the question; they will merely show that many people think they've seen an alien craft.

I spent many years investigating UFO reports and came to the conclusion that no alien intelligence has ever visited us. All UFO reports are misperceptions of mundane objects or phenomena or hoaxes.

If another technological civilisation exists in the galaxy, the first we would know about is from radio signals. Distances are too great for physical contact. That no such signals have been received indicates that we are alone in the galaxy, and perhaps alone in the universe.

Steuart Campbell, Edinburgh

No guns

I wholeheartedly agree with John Fraser that not only Scottish but British police should not be armed (Letters, 20 February). Each regional force has its’ own “armed police” on call for emergencies.

In the UK we have strict gun control; all privately owned guns must be registered with the relevant local authority. Homicides in the UK (population around 70 million) annually are around 25-35.

In huge contrast, there are roughly 500m privately owned guns in the United States (population 342m). Some 47,000 US citizens suffered gun deaths in a year.

Hence, US police carry handguns. But here, if our police force carry guns, criminals will reciprocate.

Across the United Kingdom the ordinary copper on the street absolutely does not want to be armed.

Doug Morrison, Tenterden, Kent

Peace on pitch

Scott Miller (Letters, 20 January) will have a long time to wait before religious hostility breaks out among players of the Old Firm teams.

The days when I witnessed Clyde’s Albert Murphy (Republic of Ireland international) and Rangers’ Billy Simpson (Northern Ireland) engaged in an unedifying spectacle as they wrestled on the Ibrox mud exchanging “Glasgow kisses” are long gone.

Both were summarily dismissed by the referee.

Anyone who has seen Rangers play football in recent years must surely have noticed the number of boys in blue who bless themselves on entering the pitch or scoring a goal, with no adverse comments from the fans.

The incident in Portugal was, of course, a claim of racial discrimination.

If he is a Hearts fan, Mr Miller may recall that one of the earliest manifestation of that came when Hearts fans threw bananas at Mark Walters when he went to take a corner kick.

Meantime, although the usual regrettable songs will no doubt be heard at the next Old Firm game, he should heed his own advice and not hold his breath for any similar incidents on the pitch.

Bill Greenock, Netherlee, East Renfrewshire

Go on, say it

It was interesting to see that the First Minister of devolved Scotland in 2026, John Swinney, found it simply impossible to say the words “TeamGB” in relation to the curling team at the Winter Olympics; he had to find another way of expressing it, calling them Team Mouat, after captain Bruce Mouat.

Here we had on display petty nationalism at its most stupid and banal. That the person currently holding the post of First Minister found it necessary to do so was baffling. Who was he trying to impress? His party's Anglophobe or extremist wing?

Alexander McKay, Edinburgh

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