Scotland Matters Letters

This week I called my medical practice and asked to speak to someone regarding my medication. I didn’t ask for an appointment, just to speak to someone. I was told I will receive a phone call on 19 October, a wait of 15 days. This practice became part of a private medical group a few years ago. In the lead-up to the 2014 independence referendum, we were constantly told by the SNP leadership that “the NHS is safe in our hands, the Tories want to “privatise”. Recent statistics have shown that an increasing number of people in Scotland are now paying for private medical care because of the abysmal state of NHS Scotland which is 100 per cent devolved. My heart goes out to NHS staff in Scotland who must feel they are on a hiding to nothing every time they go to work. Ian Balloch, Grangemouth, Falkirk.

Reading the SNP’S 100-point list of “achievements” over the last 15 years which it put out earlier this year we could be forgiven for believing that we are living in the land of milk and honey which it has delivered despite the “limited powers and budgets of devolution”. Despite this, those who support devolution continue with their outpouring of discontent directed at the Westminster Government which they claim has reduced Scotland to the status of some benighted, downtrodden colony. How can it be that such apparent contradictions apply to the same country? The realities lie in plain sight for those of us who are unshackled by nationalistic dogma. After 15 years at the helm, all Nicola Sturgeon’s administration truly has to show for its devolved power are a paltry collection of people-pleasing freebie policies such as toll-free bridges, baby boxes, prescriptions, free bus travel For the young and old, tuition fees and sanitary products. The rest of its much-trumpeted “accomplishments” are in fact abject failures. While poverty, drug abuse and deaths and homelessness have reached appallingly high levels, we have simultaneously seen education, health care and waiting lists and policing policies stagnate and decline. The nation’s productivity has slumped so that our GDP is eight per cent lower than the UK’S and there have been multiple spectacular investment failures. And to cap all this we have even lost the freedom of speech thanks to the SNP’S hate crime legislation. Scotland does however have the dubious distinction of having been the first country in the world to declare a climate emergency, even though it is responsible for just 0.15% of global emissions. The word “disgraceful” scarcely begins to describe the SNP’S lamentable litany of failures that diminish us in the eyes of the world. Neil J Bryce, Kelso.

The trams enquiry, the ferries, the education system, Prestwick Airport, the Scottish Census, the trams themselves, a second referendum, and now the Scottish Covid enquiry. Total and utter disasters. What do they all have in common? And no the answer isn’t Derek Mackay. If you have an answer, put it on a postcard and address it to Bute House. You will not get a reply so let me illuminate you on what would be said. Going forward, lessons have been learnt, better than elsewhere in the UK, Westminster’s fault. Better still, save yourself a stamp. Going forward, learn the lesson, do not vote for them.
Howard Lewis, Edinburgh.

We can all see that the Scottish NHS is no longer safe in the hands of the SNP-Green alliance. It appears that ScotRail is in a similar vein and to add to the train problems the Serco Company is to lose its franchise for the Caledonian Sleeper service. SNP Transport Secretary Jenny Gilruth says she is cancelling this contract even though Serco “did well” in providing the service, so whatever can Ms Gilruth have in mind to replace them? Ms Gilruth, famous for telling Scotland fans “to walk” during the summer train strike, surely doesn’t expect Scots to walk from London to Glasgow? Mind you it would certainly helpScotland’squest for net zero and reduce the obesity crisis too. Gerald Edwards, Glasgow.

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