Readers' Letters: It's right EV drivers should pay new mileage tax

EV drivers will pay around £250 on average, according to your report. This for typically twice the weight of vehicle and strain on the roads. I don’t sympathise with electric vehicle drivers typically paying £30,000+ new, or £400+ per month on contract.

Rural EV drivers do not tend to suffer from the cost of living crisis, contrary to what Jamie Greene MSP suggests in your report. Some may be “likely to pay far more than the average”, but if they are so hard up perhaps they could look either to buy a small cheap second-hand petrol car, as I did seven years ago, or move to towns and cities with a lower cost of living and better public transport.

The latter may sound radical, but according to research by the Diffley Partnership that is exactly what 20 per cent of Scotland’s rural residents are likely to do (Scotsman, 9 December).

Given it has chosen not to cut spending, the UK Government needs to raise tax and it’s hypocritical that the SNP should oppose this measure given they claim that those with the broadest shoulders, many of whom are EV drivers, pay a bit more in tax.

Neil Anderson, Edinburgh

Prison break

Another day, another release of prisoners before their time has been served. The SNP's new jail, Barlinnie Mark 2, the opening of which it seems the nationalists saw as their way out of another fine mess into which they had manoeuvred themselves, is not ready. Few will be surprised.

And so 84 prisoners are being freed early this week because the SNP failed to build a new prison on time. When will we learn?

Keep your doors locked and be careful if you go out after dark. Especially in Glasgow.

Alexander McKay, Edinburgh

Doctors sca ndal

Tuesday saw the publication of a Government update on the statistics on resident doctors chasing training places in the UK. This is now running at 3.5 applications per place (as opposed to 1.4 in 2019). And it may well be that the applications figures only reflect those who have actually applied. There may be many resident doctors who haven't even applied because they have recognised the futility of doing so. Resident doctors are leaving the NHS in large numbers and are even quitting the country altogether because they cannot get a training place.

The offer of increased training places is misleading as these are not “new” places, the UK Government have simply re-designated some existing roles as training places, according to the BMA. The Government proposals don’t actually increase the number of doctors on the wards at all, they just slightly increase the number of doctors who are in training.

The situation is nothing short of a national scandal and demonstrates a complete lack of competency. It cannot be denied that the state of the NHS was a mess on Labour being elected and that there are myriad legacy issues. But the response of the current Government, and of UK Health Secretary Wes Streeting specifically, is inadequate in the extreme and does not bear scrutiny.

Mary Fraser MBA FCIPD, Banknock, Falkirk

Children failed

What’s the difference between PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) statistics which measure 15-year olds’ educational abilities and the Scottish Government’s pupil attainments (your report, 11 December)?

The former is based on assessments and the latter is based on teachers’ “hunches” regarding pupils’ abilities. One is based on the study which is independently assessed, the other is, according to Professor Lindsay Paterson, Professor Emeritus of Education Policy at Edinburgh University, “a statistical fiction”.

It is clear from the last PISA results from 2022 that there is a long-term decline in mathematics, reading and science under the SNP government. The results compare Scotland’s education results with those of 80 other countries and show that countries such as Estonia, Austria and Latvia provide their children with a better education.

Scotland was the best performing of the UK nations in 2006 in maths and reading. Since then we have fallen by 73 points, of which 70 were in the last decade. The SNP have been in power since 2007. Many young people have had their full education under the SNP government and they have been failed.

The SNP have taken to social media over the last few days, singing the praises of the Scottish Government’s own statistics, and it is only right they are held to account by academics who see that Scottish children have been failed.

It is no coincidence that the PISA assessment of the Scottish education system has shown decline since the SNP came to power. If only they would concentrate on what is important to the citizens of Scotland rather than their obsession with separating us from the rest of the UK.

Jane Lax, Aberlour, Moray

Inquiries disaster

An excellent article by Tom Wood on the SNP's spiralling public inquiry bill, in excess of £250 million and rising (Perspective, 9 December). As he says, there are matters so important that public enquiries are essential whereas others fall into the category of “we told you so”.

Clearly the SNP, as experts in wasting taxpayers’ money on doomed or unnecessary projects, lack credibility and common sense in what falls into the latter category.

It needs more independent and knowledgeable people like Tom Wood to advise government on justification for a specific public enquiry and to explore what other less costly routes are available. Leaving such decisions to our nationalist career politicians alone has proved to be an absolute disaster.

Alastair Neilson, Edinburgh

Change needed

After visiting friends by Arbroath at the weekend my mind slipped forward to six months hence to the summer and thoughts of distilleries being asked to close temporarily due to lack of water in the Spey, to farmers here in Fife being asked to stop irrigating their crops with water from the Eden, and fry and parr gasping in the de-oxygenated low waters of the Tweed.

Through several decades there have been discussions to mitigate these summer droughts by building surface and underground reservoirs along these routes, but no action has taken place. We have the technology and experience for larger schemes than is required here, just think Ben Cruachan.

Then this week I read of the start of a new review. Reviews being synonymous with Tony Blair/Gordon Brown as a way of delaying things. This new review being the grooming gangs enquiry. It follows on from the Covid Inquiry which cost millions and only proved what Jock and Jeannie Tamson already knew. It did not give us any confidence that there would be an improvement next time around. I fear that if this nation does not greatly increase its ambition, its enterprise and put into action fully what needs to be sorted, Jock and Jeannie will hold their noses and vote for that someone they don’t particularly like but may, just may make a change for the better.

David Reid, Dunfermline, Fife

Vaccines praise

Regarding your editorial “Five reasons why it's worth paying £20 to get the flu vaccine” (10 December), I applaud The Scotsman for its timely and insightful commentary. Vaccines are one of the most successful and sophisticated public health measure invented during my lifetime, given that they can dramatically mitigate mortality, morbidity and hospitalisations for adults and children alike.

Without vaccines, human beings will fell victims to predatory viruses and microbiota that can cause life-threatening conditions such as inflammation of the brain, blindness, deafness and pneumonia, to mention only a few, and leave indelible traces of economical, social, religious and educational ruins in their aftermath.

It is a solemn obligation to warn about the disastrous implications of viruses, the important significance of vaccinations and strive to attain a universal health coverage for all.

(Dr) Munjed Farid Al Qutob, London, United Kingdom

Fresh breeze

As we approach Christmas and Hogmanay, let us not forget that 7 May 2026 could prove an auspicious date, as the electorate will decide on Scotland's political fate for the next five years. Let us just hope, most earnestly, that any allegiance to the SNP cause will be cast aside for good. Surely at long last we Scots have had enough of the doctrines of Salmond, Sturgeon and, yet again, Swinney. Hopefully a fresh breeze will bestow on us a new Administration at Holyrood. Your guess is as good as mine as to whether this will be a Labour Government, or a coalition of Labour/ Liberal Democrats? Whatever the outcome of the polls, it is imperative that the SNP is sent off into exile for an indefinite period.

Robert I G Scott, Northfield, Ceres, Fife

Esta madness

So the US is thinking of bringing in social media checks , going back five years, for visitors who want an Esta enabling them to visit. I can't think of anything more damaging to the US tourism industry; what genius thought this one up?​

William Ballantine, Bo'ness, West Lothian

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