Scotland Matters Letters

WAITING times of more than 24 hours at A&E are now 250 times worse than they were in 2019, which is the latest health record to be broken by the SNP as things go from bad to worse even before the heavy winter workload has started. It seems the only services working properly in Scotland are the ones that are not devolved as the SNP struggle to manage devolved responsibilities. It is a clear indication they are not fit for purpose and would not cope with an independent Scotland. Dennis Forbes Grattan, Aberdeen.

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SIR – In the first six months of 2019 the number of Scots who had spent more than 24 hours in A&E was 15. Last year, for the same period, this figure was almost 4,000 – a 250-fold increase. While Michael Matheson, the Scottish health secretary, has tinkered around the edges, pledging additional funding to the ambulance service, hospital doctors are warning that this is not enough. We need more available beds on wards and more facilities to enable people to return home quickly, with a support package in place. Simply throwing money at a problem does not solve it. Listening to those who work in the health service might. The SNP should try it. Jane Lax, Aberlour.

Sir, – I watched Shona Robison’s statement about the UK Covid Inquiry. It was the mummy and daddy masterclass in reading out answers prepared by someone else, a job made easier by the almost total lack of pointed opposition questions and the tried and tested “process shield” of “I can’t comment on an ongoing investigation/the terms of the inquiry forbid me to”. Opposition politicians in Holyrood should have a whip-round and hire Aamer Anwar for a boot camp in how to force information out of SNP/ Green politicians. To be fair, though, in terms of holding feet to the fire on behalf of questioners, that nice presiding officer Alison Johnson is as much use as an ashtray on a motorbike. At Westminster, the Speaker has far more clout and wit, and members have hundreds of years of process and arcane rules to dredge up and confound their opponents. The whole episode again made me wonder why we have a Scottish Parliament at all, especially when the real work on Scottish and UK Covid is going on courtesy of the UK in Westminster. Allan Sutherland, Stonehaven.

You have to love Marjorie Ellis Thompson’s enthusiasm for, loyalty to and delusional view of Alba (Letters, 1 November). Anyone who watched Ash Regan’s inaugural speech at its recent conference could appreciate how uplifting it was for the couple of hundred people in the “packed hall”. But Conor Matchett was on the button (Scotsman, 31 October) with his judgment that, in political and parliamentary terms, Alba is going nowhere. Its “Scotland United” attempt to engineer some kind of separatist electoral pact is utterly doomed. Why would the SNP ally with renegades? Alba may have parliamentary representation at both Holyrood and Westminster now, but that is only because the relevant representatives were elected as SNP MPs/MSP. Without the — albeit now depleted — SNP machine behind them, neither Neale Hanvey nor Kenny MacAskill has a chance of retaining their seat at Westminster next year, and the same will apply to Ash Regan at the 2026 Holyrood election. It may be that the other parliamentary Alba sympathiser, Angus MacNeil, independent MP, will have enough of a personal following in the Western Isles to retain his seat, but his splitting of the nationalist vote suggests otherwise. Good try, Ms Thompson! But in a couple of years or so Alba will have no parliamentary representation and will be stranded in the wilderness. Jill Stephenson, Edinburgh.

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