ALEX Gallacher (Letters, February 25) asks why councils are making cuts and the answer is simple. The legacy of £2 billion of Westminster cuts to Scotland's finances coupled with Tory austerity, which hits the most vulnerable, and an ageing population are placing unprecedented demands on all local authorities.

The ongoing costs of Labour's expensive PFI schemes on local authorities and our health boards are coming home to roost with added pressures in Glasgow thanks to Labour's long-running shabby treatment of women workers.

Labour's repeated claims on council cuts since 2010 do not compare like with like, as taking Edinburgh as an example, prior to the formation of Police Scotland Edinburgh City Council contributed almost £46 million a year towards local policing but last year this was only £2.4 million.

The official Scottish Government publication on the draft budget for 2019-20 clearly shows that the total financial allocation for local councils is increasing by £210 million, or two per cent, in real terms next year when you include council tax and ring-financed grants to protect core council services like health and education.

When asked recently in the Scottish Parliament, Labour's finance spokesperson couldn't name any council in Scotland that was getting less money next year under the SNP budget proposals.

Local services in England will be cut by a further £1.3 billion or six per cent in 2019-20, whereas in Wales the Labour administration is cutting local authority funding next year even before allowing for inflation and 28,000 local authority jobs have been lost since 2010 which is almost twice as many as in Scotland.

Pinstripe ("Why these new taxes can point the way to help improve Scotland", The Herald, February 25) is wrong when he claims that Scotland has a large budget deficit as Derek Mackay has to balance the books, but any Scottish government needs the full basket of tax powers if we are to grow our economy and continue to have far better public services than in England or Wales.

Fraser Grant,

61 Warrender Park Road, Edinburgh.

COULD pro-EU Scotland end up being a natural home for the strongly European-leaning Independent Group, particularly if it was eventually to cooperate closely or even merge with their natural bedfellows, the Liberal Democrats? Nicola Sturgeon had hoped to recruit large swathes of No-voting Remainers to her cause but opinion polls consistently demonstrate she has failed to do so.

Most No-voting Remainers are evidently pro-UK first, pro-EU second so a UK-based party with strong European credentials might just achieve some measure of popularity in Scotland. Time will tell.

Martin Redfern,

Woodcroft Road, Edinburgh.

IT is interesting to note that letters from KM Campbell and David Stubley (February 23) passed on all the blame for the current stage of impasse with the Brexit negotiations at the door of the "English electorate" and “Brexit right-wing extremists” and not a cheep about EU intransigence – basically a poor attempt to create a north-south divide to suit the nationalist cause. For example, the most basic research shows it was the electorate at both ends of the political spectrum (throughout the UK including many SNP supporters) who voted to Leave. Also common sense tells us that those who are better organised (like the ERG) will dominate the debate and are duty bound to ensure a fair and balanced Brexit will be delivered. After all, even the most ardent Brexiters want to leave with a withdrawal deal but not one that prevents doing bi-lateral trade deals (the current backstop) with the rest of the world – otherwise what is the point in leaving?

However, what is interesting is that the SNP supporters never discuss in these columns (or indeed anywhere) the root causes of Brexit which in my view have largely been created by unacceptable inequality (44 per cent of adults do not now pay income tax), hence the revolt with angry Labour voters, whilst the rest of the issues (other than our net £10 billion contribution) although problematic, are more of a side show.

I am referring, of course, to the massive £90bn (much larger than the GDP of Scotland) imbalance of trade in goods with the EU where we have in effect “exported” hundreds of thousands of highly skilled jobs to Europe – yet we are in balance with the rest of the world under WTO-based rules and where we do most of our trade. Trade wars are dangerous but ignoring massive imbalances of trade are equally troublesome – but unlike the UK don't expect the US to be so diplomatic when they threaten a 25 per cent tariff on cars to redress their imbalance of trade with the EU.

Finally, with Germany (Europe's largest economy by far) a whisker away from stumbling into recession, riots in France, Italy threatening to leave the euro and so on, perhaps it is time for all concerned to look for pragmatic solutions rather than be driven purely by dogma or grandiose schemes doomed to failure.

Ian Lakin,

Pinelands, Murtle Den Road, Milltimber, Aberdeen.

THE economic and social consequences of a no-deal Brexit are one thing. The lies told by the hard Brexiters are quite another. A Cabinet dominated by Jacob Rees-Mogg, Boris Johnson, Iain Duncan Smith, Michael Gove, David Davis and Liam Fox, not to mention sundry other incompetents who holed our democracy and global reputation below the water-line, will inflict further untold damage on our country.

I keep pondering on how I might dissociate myself from all that is British should the worst happen. A ceremonial burning of my passport is probably going too far as we may well wish to reverse the trend of migration and take to the boats to seek asylum in the EU. Now that would be a magnificent display if hundreds of thousands of Remainers, transformed into Returners, were to make their displeasure known in this way leaving the country to the Jacobites, not to mention the Corbynistas. A truly symbolic reverse Dunkirk.

Unfortunately the obvious remedy of Independence will not be an option, our economy having been ravaged by the consequences of Brexit.

John Milne,

9 Ardgowan Drive, Uddingston.

IT'S hard to find anything to smile about in Westminster politics just now, but in 1882 WS Gilbert did.

As Private Willis stood on guard outside Westminster Hall he sang:

"When in that House MPs divide,

If they've a brain and cerebellum, too,

They've got to leave that brain outside,

And vote just as their leaders tell 'em too.

But then a prospect of dull MPs in close proximity,

All thinking for themselves, is what

No man can face with equanimity ..."'

– Iolanthe, a Comic Opera by Gilbert and Sullivan

Anne Paterson,

24B Dalvait Gardens, Balloch.

Read more: SNP claims on local authority cash don't add up