Readers' Letters: SNP-led Scottish Parliament has priorities all wrong

The first day after the summer break and it hoists the Palestinian flag, in reality representing Hamas. It flies our own Union flag on just one day per year. Where was the Israeli flag to signify solidarity from Holyrood to get the hostages back?

Holyrood really needs to be shut down if Gaza is considered to be its number one priority. Scots are dying from drug overdoses, patients can't get timely NHS treatment, schools are seeing unprecedented levels of violence and our justice system and policing are broken. Why isn't Holyrood flagging these concerns?

Gerald Edwards, Glasgow

Turnabout time?

The Scottish Government is to stop donating public funds to arms companies supplying Israel. Perhaps Israel should request the return of the patron saint of Scotland, as he was an Israeli?

Elaine Pomeransky, Edinburgh

Soap box

As soap shop Lush has decided to give itself a public holiday in “solidarity” with Gaza, I have decided to show my solidarity with “Scoldilocks” Greta Thunderg and her eternal war with corporate consumerism destroying the planet by never shopping in Lush ever again.

I do hope they understand.

Mark Boyle, Johnstone, Renfrewshire

Going it alone

“Independence is not a priority for the people of Scotland.” This misleading soundbite has again been repeated by another spokesperson for effectively the parliament of England led by a Prime Minister whose prime interest in Scotland is seemingly to denigrate Scotland’s government at PMQs.

Keir Starmer is, of course, enthusiastically aided in that scurrilous quest by the BBC and a UK media that take every opportunity to convey to Scottish audiences an agenda aimed at popularity in England. A highly slanted perspective on the complex topic of immigration, focusing on a tiny percentage of people coming to the UK in boats, is foisted on the people of Scotland in order to divert from the catastrophic management of the UK Government, which has presided over austerity and deteriorating public services throughout the UK for more than a decade.

Even more perverse were BBC headlines highlighting Scotland’s high numbers of drug deaths in a European context following the announcement of a fall of 13 per cent and the lowest number of deaths since 2017.

On the pivotal topic of Scottish independence, the subject of a new Scottish Government paper, surely the people of Scotland, and not Keir Starmer or a partial media, should determine what is a priority for Scotland and whether their parliament should have the legal authority to hold a constitutional referendum, or not, especially if Scotland is supposed to be a partner in a voluntary and democratic union?

Stan Grodynski, Longniddry, East Lothian

Dark days

I was interested to read Lewis Finnie’s letter in The Scotsman (3 September). In February 1945 we were hiding in a cellar in a small German village some distance west of Dresden, under the return flight path of the bombers who were jettisoning their surplus. As I was 18 months old at the time my mother’s argument that this was “only bombs” (because she was genuinely more frightened of the possibility of being overtaken by the Russian Front) carried little weight but left me with a lifelong fear of fireworks.

Now, in 2025, few people in the UK understand why we were refugees from Latvia, fleeing the Red Army, though there were millions of us. Few also understand the parallels to current events in Ukraine. May I recommend the works of Timothy Snyder?

Marina Donald, Edinburgh

Xi society

President Xi declaims that “China’s rise is unstoppable”. Of course it is, if the western democracies’ politicians and business leaders continue to finance it as they have naively done for 30 years – and as the EU also funds China’s energy supplier, Russia, even while it intensifies its aggression against Ukraine.

John Birkett, St Andrews, Fife

Serve the people

Of all the catastrophically stupid decisions ever made by UK politicians, the decision by Labour/SNP to shut down our own oil and gas industry decades prematurely must rank near the top. It now appears we are already importing oil and gas – which, if we were to believe Ed Miliband, should have long ago been superseded by renewables.

So, we are buying in a seller's international market a source of energy that nature had bestowed beneath the seas around these islands in abundance, but in order to please the eco zealots is close to being totally abandoned. Oil and gas are not infinite, and the day will come that there is no more, but acting decades earlier than required worsened a situation that was well in hand.

Our politicians should forget the eco brownie points and virtue signalling and legislate to provide warmth and energy security to the people they represent and who pay their enormous salaries.

Alexander McKay, Edinburgh

Highland games?

On 3 September, community councils in the Highlands were notified that the proposed Spittal to Beauly overhead power line was now up for consultation. We have been given until 6 October to respond and have already been told by Government that this date will not be extended.

The application comprises 248 documents, many of which are lengthy and technical, and has taken SSEN several years to prepare. If built, this 107-mile power line will change the Highland landscape for a generation. Yet we are supposed to review and comment in a month! Community councillors are unpaid volunteers and we have no money to pay for expert advice.

This appears to be an attempt to deny democracy, a scandal.

At the request of the Highlands’ community councils, our elected representatives have already agreed to support a call for a Planning Inquiry Commission, to review the whole Highlands electricity project.

John Heathcote, Secretary, Contin Community Council, Contin, Highland

Ferry confused

The UK Government has proposed working in partnership with the Scottish Government in reframing procurement law to favour UK and Scottish companies. This seems to fly in the face of World Trade Organisation rules which stipulate that governments “shall make any such purchases or sales solely in accordance with commercial considerations and shall afford other contracting parties adequate opportunity to compete for consideration in such purchases or sales”.

Not only that but the Scottish Government’s own rules state that: “There should be clear separation of budgetary authority (the government) and procurement authority (the purchasing agency) when awarding contracts” i.e. no government interference.

A few weeks ago the chief executive of Ferguson Marine indicated that a direct award for any new ferries would greatly help his company. But he then said he wasn’t sure whether that was legal because he “wasn’t up” on procurement rules. My jaw dropped. Was this the man enlisted to procure orders for Ferguson Marine admitting he doesn’t know how procurement works? Graeme Thomson also stated that management engaged with the workforce when planning build strategies. But a previous chief executive testified that attempts to speed up progress were hampered by the workforce declining to co-operate. The workers, for their part, claimed any delays were entirely down to management. Why would anybody hand work to such a clearly conflicted company?

Mr Thomson has previously admitted that Ferguson’s business plan to 2029 was based on the direct award of the contract to build seven new ferries. In other words, he assumed there would be no competition despite this being a legal requirement for all public contracts above a certain value. Bafflement became incredulity when he then said that this strategy was an integral part of the yard’s plan to deliver “a sustainable, profitable, efficient and competitive yard”.

Robert Menzies, Falkirk

Spokes too soon

The 2025 “Tour of Britain” cycling race began this week but at no stage does it come to Scotland! Surely it should be titled the Tour of England and Wales?

Alan Woodcock, Dundee

Oar-some

What an achievement by the superhuman MacLean brothers, rowing non-stop and unsupported across the Pacific Ocean over almost 140 days at sea.

As an 85-year-old retired sailor, I say, so much for the “Snowflake Generation”. These young lads deserve huge plaudits for a monumental task completed in record time.

Well done, you are a credit to your family and your generation.

Ian Smith, Troon, South Ayrshire

Like riding a bike

Re: your article on Edinburgh’s new electric bikes (4 September), I loved Alastair Dalton's description of hiring them as simple! “Download the Voi app and add your payment details, locate a bike, scan its QR to unlock it and off you go.” Imagine doing all that in the rain. I think I'll pass on them

Scott Miller, Edinburgh

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