As Peter Russell stated, under devolution the Scottish Parliament has authority over housing, education and so on (Topic of the week – Thatcher's legacy: independence?, Letters, April 21).
This, to some extent, insulates Scotland against certain aspects of Westminster policy – but not all.
Westminster ultimately holds the purse strings. The Coalition Government sliced £1.5 billion from the Scottish budget last year. There have been successive cuts over the previous years, despite the fact that tax revenue from Scotland has exceeded what the Treasury has given back in return. This has had a knock-on effects on local authorities. Council budgets set last year need to find tens of millions of pounds of cuts over the next three years, which will invariably result in service cuts. The limited scope of devolved powers of the Scottish Parliament have not helped us.
The Coalition Government has pushed through welfare reforms, including the iniquitous "bedroom tax", despite the SNP Government's opposition – and fired threats of legal action if they were not enacted.
Yet again, the devolved powers of the Scottish Parliament were not enough to help us.
The Scottish people did not vote for Margaret Thatcher, but we suffered the ravages of Thatcherism just the same. Now the Conservatives are propelling Thatcherism to a new level. Having our own parliament could not stop this.
It will be up to the Scottish people to decide if Scotland once again becomes an independent country. If not, then full fiscal powers for the Scottish Parliament are crucial and all revenue raised in Scotland should stay here, including Scotland's share of oil and gas revenue.
This would at least deliver financial independence and bring to an end the annual humiliation of going cap in hand to Westminster and Westminster giving us what they feel we deserve.
Steve Flynn
Fife
Peter Russell fails to mention that Margaret Thatcher's governments engineered the mass sell-off of public assets such as nationalised industries and public utilities at far below their market value.
They used much of the income to pay spiralling welfare costs as their economic and industrial policies led to mass unemployment. We are now all paying the cost of this in escalating fuel bills and so on.
Despite the right's rewriting of history, the cull of Scotland and the UK's manufacturing base had little to do with the trade union movement. Instead, indigenous firms which had been badly managed and were failing to compete internationally were denied the government support that might have allowed them to restructure and prosper. Public funding was then thrown at foreign multinational firms to encourage them to inwardly invest in the UK. Most of these firms have since relocated away from the UK. This destruction of Scotland's manufacturing base was a major contributory factor to the dire economic situation faced by Scots today.
Kris McFadyen
East Kilbride
Much mileage has been made about Thatcher's inability to pronounce "Falkirk" correctly. Could we say the same about our Scottish politicians, media journalists and commentators who seem to insist on annunciating 'Hollyrood' instead of its correct pronunciation: "Holy Rood"?
Hugh Steele
Cumbernauld
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