Letters: The steps that an ailing UK state needs to take as a priority

He also referred to the totally undemocratic, unelected House of Lords, where if one bankrolls the Conservative Party by donating £147,000, one can become a lord or, indeed, a baron. How utterly indefensible in the 21st century.

Mackay, however, omitted one other key part of modern democracies all around the world, which most nations take for granted – a written constitution, in place of the current discredited system of “rule by convention”.

Oh, and while we are sorting that lot out, let’s clean up the immoral tax evasion channelled through overseas Crown protectorates. This benefits the already super-rich who like to wave the Union flag but do all they can to avoid UK taxes. The Pandora Papers, anyone?

Finally, let’s outlaw the City of London being used as the world’s leading centre for money laundering, which benefits lawyers, accountants and estate agents, as well as oligarchs and other assorted despotic regimes.

Alec Oattes, Ayr.

ENDING THE CULTURE OF HOSTILITY

RUTH Marr (letters, October 19) points out that the SNP appears less frequently on serious news programmes in its function as the third party at Westminster than the Liberal Democrats used to when they occupied the position.

It is interesting to ponder that the Nationalists hold that position on the basis of 1,242,380 votes, while at the same election in 2019, the Liberal Democrats gained 3,696,419 votes - three times as many, and gained in constituencies from Scilly to Shetland.

Likewise, in Scotland, the SNP took 48 seats out of 59 on the basis of less than half of the votes cast.

A truly proportional system of electing our MPs would correct the position whereby the SNP gets its parliamentary privileges and taxpayers’ money as the false third party. It would also reduce the Nationalists’ representation to the minority which its votes justify in Scotland.

In these circumstances, it is laudable that the SNP supports PR when it will cut them down to size. All other parties ought to join them in fighting for its introduction, which will open a new chapter in British politics.

Indeed, the need for coalitions and compromise might be just what we need to end the culture of antagonism and hostility which so blights Scotland and the wider UK.

Peter A. Russell, Jordanhill, Glasgow.

REMEMBERING SIR DAVID AMESS

WHEN Sir David Amess was a young MP in the 1980s with, I think, four young children, my brother, John Francis Sheridan, moved from Glasgow with his wife and three children to live in David’s constituency in Basildon.

Tragically, in 1990, while visiting family in Glasgow, John Francis died very suddenly of a brain haemorrhage.

Our family has always found it a source of comfort that David Amess, for no political capital, took the time to travel away from his very busy life in Basildon to attend, in an act of private kindness, my brother’s funeral in Glasgow.

Now, the hope has been expressed that the tragic death of Sir David Amess will encourage greater kindness in public life also.

Michael Sheridan, Scotstoun, Glasgow.

CHANGING GPS’ WORKING MODEL

LESLEY Riddoch raises many questions with regard to pressing issues associated with the NHS (“Do we have the stomach for change that needs to happen to our GP service?”, October 18).

I would refer, in particular, to her comment concerning the next generation of GPs being prepared to agree, as part of future changes, the end of the old independent contractor model.

The problems in originally establishing the NHS – the National Health Act was passed in 1946 – were fundamental, complicated and challenging. Not least was the task of securing the agreement of the British Medical Association, representing GPs, which had objected to the legislation.

Eventually Aneurin Bevan, the Health Secretary, after much difficult and detailed negotiation, made concessions such as allowing greater control to GPs over their incomes, rather than flat salaries, and the right to work wherever they chose to do so, rather than under direction .

Eventually, a deal was done and the new arrangements were able to commence on July 5, 1948.

There are those today who maintain that all that was 70 years or so ago and that the operation of general practice has not changed much since then. Accordingly, a new arrangement is overdue and much needed.

With all that background, one wonders about how willing GPs would be to become effectively employees of the state as a result of the introduction of such changes.

Ian W Thomson, Lenzie.

INDEPENDENCE AND NHS BUDGETS

RICHARD Richardson (letters, October 16) argues that responsibility for poor performance of Scotland’s NHS lies in the assertion that “health spending in Scotland was “10% higher in 2009-10 and just 3% higher in 2019-20” than in England.

However, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) report he relies on makes clear a few lines later that this is due to “a growing share of the health portfolio’s budget going to early years and adult social care services”, consistent with a 2004 decision by the Scottish Government at that time to focus on preventive medicine and keeping people out of hospital.

In any event, the report concludes that the evidence, “does not, overall, suggest the apparent ‘squeeze’ in relative health spending levels has led to a relative decline in service performance, at least over the last decade”.

However, is there a reason why Mr Richardson’s base year is 2009/10 for comparison to 10 years later? If we examine the two health budgets, capital investment in the former is £629.4 million, but by 2019/20 only £336 million.

Perhaps the reason for the decline in health funding can be explained not only by the transfer of resources into health and social care, but also that Glasgow’s Queen Elizabeth University Hospital and Edinburgh Royal Infirmary had been completed, thus increasing the health budget in the earlier period – but for reasons of capital expenditure.

GERS is also quoted with apparent authority, but one thing those who use it to condemn independence routinely forget is that on page 2 the report says it “addresses three questions about Scotland’s public sector finances under the current constitutional arrangements”.

How legitimate is using a report written about Scotland as part of the UK to make exact predictions about Scotland when independent?

Mr Richardson’s conclusion that “diversion of funding away from our NHS” by the SNP government has been shown to be questionable, and certainly does not rebut David Crawford’s conclusion (letters, October 15) that “Scotland needs to educate and train more medical staff in all grades and positions, and it needs to fund the NHS properly”.

The decision whether to do so, taken within the UK, will almost entirely be determined by a Westminster government “intent on privatising health care”.

Only under independence can the decision on how much to spend on the NHS in Scotland be taken in Scotland.

Alasdair Galloway, Dumbarton.

OVERHAULING HUMAN RIGHTS

AT the Conservative Party Conference, the Justice Secretary, Dominic Raab, announced plans to ‘overhaul’ the Human Rights Act.

Last weekend he explained what this improvement in legislation would involve. “Where there have been judgements that – albeit properly and duly delivered by the courts – we think are wrong, the right thing is for parliament to legislate to correct them”.

This raises the question of who the ‘we’ are. The public? Parliament? Boris Johnson and his party? With the obvious follow up question: ‘“hat right have they to pervert international law?”

I seem to recall that a similar “overhaul” of international law was made by someone in Europe in the 1930s, with disastrous consequences for millions.

T J Dowds, Cumbernauld.

CATALOGUE OF SNP DISASTERS

JUST a few disasters from the last day or two, to add to the existing catalogue.

In education, 984 schools have not been inspected since 2011 - ten years ago. Two (more?) island ferries are to be out of action, scarcely surprising in an aged and ill-maintained fleet. The Scottish government has had to commit £35 million of our money to pay for its malpractice in the Rangers prosecution case, with more millions being earmarked for further payouts.

But hey, everything is fine – the Chief Mammy has gone to Iceland.

Jill Stephenson, Edinburgh.