And so it begins.

The benefits for working poor are to be frozen for two years ("Cameron tells Tories of big 'opportunity' as Osborne reveals freeeze", The Herald, September 30).

A freeze is a reduction after inflation and after it is over increases start from a lower baseline. This will be catastrophic for working families with children within the growing numbers on minimum wage.

We expect nothing less from a Tory Government but it is already in bed with the Liberal Democrats and Labour says it will not reverse the welfare reforms of the Government if it is elected next year.

These are not the policies espoused by the majority of voters in Scotland. I believe there are other ways to deal with the UK Government's debt that grows day by day. Is it a given that basic tax can never be increased beyond 20p and that the higher rate is stuck at 40p and anything more is impossible?

These policies are aimed fair and square at those who do not care about others and who must be pandered to if elections are to be won in the soft underbelly of the UK.

Our referendum was won by Westminster and "Project Fear" telling tales that were designed to frighten the old and the vulnerable; they would lose their pension and all the rest unless they voted No. Well, it will happen anyway; first the working poor then, after red or blue Tories win a majority, it will be the pensioners and the sick.

There is another way but it is not to punish those at the bottom of the heap.

We are promised increased devolution "soon"; already they squabble about how little can be given and how it can be restricted by fiddling with the Barnett Formula. As a quid pro quo, our Scottish MPs are to be relegated to second class and prevented from voting on those things that are perceived to be "English only", such as the extension to Crossrail, HS2 or the upcoming new Thames Barrage.

DS Blackwood,

1 Douglas Drive East,

Helensburgh.