Readers' Letters: Sarwar and Offord should be working to beat SNP

Reform’s Scottish leader, Malcolm Offord, has said he received an approach from Labour counterpart Anas Sarwar to discuss this issue, although this is vehemently denied by Mr Sarwar.

Is it not the duty of the leaders of the unionist parties to at least meet and see what can be done to try to increase the number of anti-independence seats in the interest of the country? The prize could be significant, and possibly also give each of these parties a share of power, rather than a continuation of the very unsatisfactory status quo.

Callum Watson, Edinburgh

Accept invitation

Many of us will recall SNP ministers frequently going to New York for Tartan Week in an effort, at taxpayers’ expense, to boost trade. John Swinney has just been offered a golden opportunity to promote Scotland on the world stage by President Donald Trump with his invitation to attend a banquet in honour of the King and Queen's state visit to the US.

Mr Swinney has turned this down, saying he is in the middle of an election. That is true but as Mr Swinney also claims he is going to win an outright majority should he not have used this rare chance to promote Scotland at the highest levels? If he is so certain of victory then surely this would enhance his credentials, particularly if he thinks Scotland will soon be independent and would therefore welcome US investment. Unless, of course, this claimed victory and new independence referendum is simply SNP spin?

Gerald Edwards, Glasgow

Ill-equipped

In their criticisms of the SNP and Green Party, Jill Stephenson and Robert Scott (Letters, 21 April) should remember that these were both formerly no more than pressure groups.

Now, via the vagaries of the Scottish Parliament, they find themselves in positions for which they were never equipped. All they can do is continue to promote their narrow views, which are now inappropriate in the wider aspects of a minor form of government.

Malcolm Parkin, Kinnesswood, Kinross-shire

It’s all a disaster

I am confident future historians will consider Brexit to have been an unmitigated disaster. There can be no dispute that it has damaged both the UK economy and the cost of living. Putting it quite simply, by this act of self-harm our country has been diminished.

It has been our misfortune to have had a succession of hopeless prime ministers including the three public schoolboys: Tony Blair, who took us into an illegal war; David Cameron, who paved the way for Brexit; and the scoundrel Boris Johnson. We now have the hapless Starmer, ridiculed by Donald Trump and his position under almost constant threat.

Even with the forthcoming removal of the hereditary peers, we have to put up with the throwback to the Middle Ages that is the House of Lords. At an annual cost of £143 million it is the most expensive club in London, a club packed with placemen, chums and donors. Credit to the SNP for refusing to make any nominations to this embarrassing anachronism.

We have a failing economy, a broken immigration system and our public services in crisis. Westminster has sold off our industrial heritage and adds insult to injury by shelling out subsidies to the foreign owners such as £500m to Tata Steel. Rather than learning lessons from our Scandinavian neighbours, who tax wealth and land, our Labour government has to resort to borrowing. As a consequence, the UK National Debt has ballooned by over £186 billion in just one year to £2.71 trillion. This means that it is increasing by £4,956 per second and £428m per day.

Of course, the Scottish government deserves criticism for the over-budget and delayed Clyde ferries but this pales into insignificance when we consider the £80bn (and up) spent on HS2 which has still to carry a single passenger.

Then we have a wide range of scandals to choose from including Grenfell, the Post Office, Epstein, grooming gangs, fly tipping on an industrial scale, the Covid fast -track contracts. and now Peter Mandelson. There is a national inquiry into 14 English Health Trusts over the needless deaths of hundreds of babies and young children.

We are fortunate to live in a country with resources, a beautiful landscape, an educated population and which enjoys global goodwill. Last week New York celebrated the annual Tartan Day. There’s a St Patrick’s Day in March – but to the best of my knowledge, no United Kingdom Day.

Eric Melvin, Edinburgh

Un-topia

Events in the Middle East and Ukraine have put defence today much higher on the agenda. But Herbert Petrie's letter (21 April) outlining his vision of the rosy future independence would bring to Scotland doesn't mention it.

Perhaps he looks to the Republic of Ireland, whose neutrality in the Second World War (dependent on being shielded geographically by the UK) went so far that the Taoiseach was the only leader of a neutral European country to sign the condolence book after the suicide in the Berlin bunker on 30 April 1945. And my experience of Ireland doesn't support Herbert's view of its social cohesion; once when travelling from Queen's University in Belfast to the airport, the journey was enlivened by an enormous explosion a couple of streets away from the road I was on.

As for Herbert's view that independence is needed for freedom to invest in education and healthcare, these have always been under firm political and financial control from Edinburgh. Long before parliamentary devolution I advised Scottish ministers and civil servants about NHS activities and food safety, pointing out more than once the superiority of Scottish systems to those in England and Wales.

But even with the union-dependent generous subsidy coming from London and the South-East of England, aka the Barnett formula, and on a personal note, paying more income tax than if I lived south of the border (Herbert is wrong to imply independence is needed for Scotland to set its own tax rates; it isn't, because it can and does) the fully independent Scottish NHS controlled by the SNP still struggles.

Personal experience again; when I had an infection last autumn requiring hospital admission I became a corridor patient and waited seven hours before seeing a doctor.

Hugh Pennington, Aberdeen

Not good enough

It was right our Prime Minister apologise regarding the appointment of Lord Mandelson – he could do no other. What he has avoided is outlining what considerations and safeguards were in his mind in making that decision to appoint someone with a track record of being dismissed twice from office and suggestions that he had had dubious links with Russia and China.

Surely in taking the decision to proceed, as he did, he had in mind to make sure that all aspects of vetting had been pursued. It is not sufficient to say “no-one told me”. In the circumstance, it was incumbent on Sir Keir to not only ask Lord Mandelson himself, but to proactively question officials fully before proceeding.

James Watson, Dunbar, East Lothian

Sorry saga

Our Prime Minister blames civil servants for not informing him as to why Mandelson failed vetting and still got to be ambassador to the USA. Most folk who have read newspapers over the last couple of decades will wonder why Mandelson was even considered in the first place. This saga does the PM no credit whatever the final outcome.

Drew Reid, Carronshore, Falkirk

Inflated claim

Philip Ewart (Letters, 20 April) seems to think what the First Minister said about inflation and prices shows a “lack of financial understanding”.

I’d say it was a statement of fact that “inflation has come down, but prices have not”. After the very high inflation due to the supply shock caused by the war in Ukraine, the UK government claimed they were responsible for reducing inflation. It then took a while for some to realise what this meant, and the First Minister’s phrase – “inflation has come down, but prices have not” – was all over the media. I don’t think there are many members of the public left that now think otherwise.

It might also be worth noting that inflation is measured by reference to a basket of goods and services. There can be items in the basket where the price has come down and others where the price has increased. The price of food has certainly increased, by more than the Consumer Price Index, as my weekly supermarket bill demonstrates. Food supplies are now being seriously endangered by the Iran conflict. If this continues much longer, the SNP proposal to cap the price of some items of food on public health grounds may not be seen as outlandish. The First Minister will be aware that the recent review of the Internal Market Act did not make any changes to the Act, but the UK government’s response to the review states that evidence relating to public health will be considered when exclusions from the Act are discussed.

George S Gordon, Edinburgh

Home to roost

Away back in 1977, when Prime Minister Jim Callaghan appointed his son-in-law as Ambassador to the USA, I introduced a bill in the House of Commons to make Ambassadorial appointments subject to Parliamentary approval. Unfortunately my bill never saw the light of day.

The chickens have now come home to roost nearly half a century later.

Dennis Canavan

Former MP and MSP

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