Letters: It is time for action, not words on NHS staffing problems

Time has run out for education reform, it takes years to show results. Similarly, under the SNP, the true staffing levels (that is, the number actually needed) in our NHS has failed to keep pace with demand. No amount of spin from Ms Sturgeon or Health Minister Shona Robison can treat those patients who are on long waiting lists.

The numbers of staff needed should have been assessed years ago and provision made to prepare young Scots to work in the NHS, not to depend on free movement of people from Europe to cover up the SNP's shortfall. The crisis is upon us now and we need more than mere words from the SNP to fix it.

Dr Gerald Edwards,

Broom Road, Glasgow.

GEORGE Leslie, in his analysis of Barnett consequences (Letters, July 27) fails to take into account the impact of an independent electricity grid on the budgets of Scottish consumers. Now that Holyrood has given planning permission for the wind power stations at Neart na Gaoithe, Tay estuary, Alnaharra, Islay and Carsphairn there will now be around 14,000 MW of plant to meet an average spring/summer demand of only 2,000 MW.

Exporting 3,000 MW means there is a 9,000 MW of surplus generation units. Currently, 92 per cent of the costs are paid by English and Welsh consumers but independence means that these arrangements are illegal under European regulations and the total bill must be met by Scottish households.

9,000 MW of surplus plant paid at £1,000 per MWhour for 4,000 hours over the spring/summer seasons means a bill of around £36 billion a year for the 25-year operational period of the wind power stations. How does Mr Leslie justify such a cost on the incomes of the 40 per cent of Scots living in fuel poverty?

Ian Moir,

79 Queen Street, Castle Douglas.

I WAS not aware that Dennis Canavan had rejoined the Labour Party after his sojourn with the SNP. I assume this must be quite a recent event, otherwise he would know that Ian Murray has represented Edinburgh South following the last three General Elections, each time increasing his majority (“Canavan accuses Labour peers of ‘affront to democracy’ over Murray’s victory”, The Herald, July 27, and Letters, July 27).

In 2010 Mr Murray had a majority in the low hundreds and went into the 2015 election on a knife edge. In fact he increased his majority to more than 2,000 and became the only Labour MP in Scotland. This time round he put his majority up to 15,514, which is the largest majority of any MP in Scotland.

How did he do this? He did it by representing his whole constituency. As someone who was proud to campaign on his behalf, I can tell you I encountered great enthusiasm for him on the doorstep. His name would get people to open tenement stairs. I think it is entirely appropriate that someone who has such a massive democratic mandate should lead the Scottish Parliamentary Labour Party, which does, after all, include the Labour lords who did such a fantastic job holding the last Conservative Government to account on its proposed changes to tax credits.

Judith Gillespie,

40 Findhorn Place, Edinburgh.

I AM glad that Bill Ramsay (Letters, July 25) enjoyed his trip with publicly owned French SNCF. He sees no reason to fear that it will not remain in public hands. He is not alone in his ignorance about what the EU has coming down the line for EU citizens: the Fourth Railway Package. The EU has clearly learned from Britain’s radical privatisation experience, because this package, which should be in place by 2020, includes the opening up of domestic passenger services to on-rail competition in all member states, and the tendering of services provided under passenger service obligation contracts.

EU rules already require that freight and international passenger services are open to competition and that certain “essential functions” of infrastructure management must be independent of train operators. That last bit means the separation of infrastructure like Network Rail and the railway operating companies like ScotRail Abellio – a separation which many believe has intensified recent difficulties in modernising the railways in Scotland and Britain and, taken with the planned changes of 2020, make sustaining an integrated, nationalised railway service impossible.

Vince Mills,

Radical Options for Scotland and Europe (ROSE) committee member,

49 Partickhill Road, Glasgow.

AM I alone in worrying that the current smash hit movie Dunkirk is a metaphor for Britain’s exit from the EU? In 1940, we were completely unprepared for the German onslaught, led by a divided Government, and were driven out of Europe in utter humiliation. The present Government is deeply split, and appears completely unprepared for the EU negotiating onslaught. Am I right to be worried? It is difficult to see a Churchillian figure lurking in the wings, but I sincerely hope that one can be found when the time comes.

J A Colquhoun,

15 Overton Drive, West Kilbride.

WHILE we have been debating the ins and outs of the EU, oil-rich Saudi Arabia has been at war for the past three years with Yemen.

This has now became the world’s biggest humanitarian crisis. Five million people are suffering from malnutrition and 5,000 cases of cholera a day are being recorded, this from a population of 22.5 million.

Saudi Arabia is Britain’s biggest ally in the Middle East, and must have some influence in the area. Britain is very quick to condemn the Syrian regime, but appears to turn the other cheek when it comes to Saudi Arabia, a country that holds public floggings, beheadings, amputations and the stoning of women for adultery.

The British Government under Theresa May’s leadership has this year sold Saudi Arabia £3 billion of weapons. Surely she should be held part responsible for this crisis.

And is this the sort of trade deals she wants when we leave the EU?

Robert McCaw,

6 Hamilton Crescent, Renfrew.