Scotland Matters Letters

Sir, – On a weekend when a seriously ill close relative of mine could not be admitted to hospital unless he was willing to wait four or five hours in an ambulance before getting through the doors of the hospital, can I please ask your readers if this is a situation they envisaged would be possible in 2022? My sick relative was advised by paramedics to remain at home rather than endure an appallingly long wait for admission. The family were further told that even after being admitted there would be a lengthy wait to be seen by a doctor. The family had to offer a form of nursing throughout the night and with no access to a medical professional. I am sure we are all consoled that our so-called first minister blithely disregards the inhumane and utterly reckless treatment of our citizens while setting aside some £20 million of taxpayers’ money in preparation for a pretendy referendum. How many nursing staff could be employed or medical equipment purchased for this considerable sum of money? How important is her travelling in an aircraft in her Jimmy Choo shoes to open a pretendy embassy or travelling in similar fashion to attend conferences abroad and then lecturing us all on climate issues -our media are not even allowed details of her travel arrangements. Foreign affairs are not a devolved matter and yet we, the taxpayers, have to endure the considerable expense of her self-promotion and pursuit of selfies with politicians who have no idea who she is. The media are not even allowed to question modes of transport or associated costs. Well done Nicola Sturgeon and all of the SNP cronies in turning a proud country into a third-world, banana-republic dictatorship. Shame on you all for putting the citizens of this country in peril while blithely pursuing your own selfish desires. Paul Reid, North Union Street, Copan.

Social justice secretary Shona Robison tells us that now is indeed the time to hold a referendum (stifles yawn). She makes some elementary errors. First, using the present UK government’s problems and unpopularity as reasons to break up a country forever is the opposite of sensible. Second, we are back to the tired old “levers”. Ms Robison talks about the need “to make our own decisions”. There are already decisions that the Sturgeon regime could have taken but hasn’t— on, critical-ly, the poverty-related attainment gap in education. The SNP has done nothing about that and recently consigned it to the “too difficult’ box. Third, Ms Robison treats us to the usual SNP delusion: “We’d be able to borrow like other countries are doing.” How often do SNP members and leaders need to be told that no one would lend to a country—other than at Wonga rates —which had no plan for having its own currency, central bank and lender of last resort? Can Ms Robison name the institution that would act as Scotland’s lender of last resort —guarantor to lenders — in the event of secession? This question is perhaps the thorniest for the SNP, whether it chose to adopt Sterling or a new currency. No one has been able to suggest what the answer would be. Jill Stephenson, Edinburgh.

Liz Truss has admitted the 45 per cent tax change was wrong. Contrast this with Nicola Sturgeon’s stubborn refusal to admit she got it badly wrong over the ferries and Humza Yousaf’s determination to deflect blame for the woes besetting the NHS. The SNP never deals with problems head on, only sidesteps them – which strongly suggests it does do not have the answers. Gerald Edwards, Glasgow.

Sir, – I can’t be the only person to have expected lower bills as green energy production grew in the last decade or so. In fact, power bills are soaring at an alarming rate and it seems that despoiling the countryside with thousands of windmills makes no difference. It is not the Scottish householder who benefits from the Saudi Arabia of renewables but wind farm owners, who between them were paid £133 million last year to close down when they have to reduce output. As expected, the SNP says “it’s nothing to do with us, although it is them who are determined to cover every spare inch of countryside with wind turbines. If it were possible in my house I would have a log burner installed, and if the Greta Thunbergs of this world didn’t like it they could, as the saying goes, whistle Dixie. Ian Balloch, Naismith Court, Grangemouth.

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