Labour has lost its way. Scotland needs a new party

Scotland needs a new party to recognise our different attitudes, values and aspirations.

The SNP unfortunately may have had its day unless it can sort out its internal problems and become more transparent. How can you have a First Minister married to the party's chief executive? Madness. We need new blood and we need it now.
Andy Stenton, Glasgow

Devolution has been a success

MY experience of devolution is the polar opposite of John Findlay's (Letters, December 16). It makes sense to me to have government closer to home and a good number of the policies enacted by the Scottish Parliament, by all administrations since it was re-established, have had popular support and a positive impact.

It is regrettable that Greenock and Port Glasgow have never fully recovered from the loss of their industry, particularly shipbuilding, despite significant investment by several government initiatives over the years. But it is wrong to blame devolution.

There is of course scope for improvement. I look forward to a time when the current constitutional impasse is over and our parties can begin to work together in the spirit originally intended.
David Bruce, Troon

Move UK Parliament out of London

THE report by the Commission on the UK’s Future, chaired by Gordon Brown, now published for consultation, has drawn responses in a number of articles and letters in this newspaper, recently by George Foulkes, the former Labour Member of Parliament and Minister of State for Scotland (“Gordon Brown’s report on the constitution is a missed opportunity”, The Herald, December 14). I voted for independence in 2014 but then became intrigued by the implication of the Brexit result in Scotland which showed that a significant majority of voters were content to remain part of a wider political union and subject to a higher parliament – the European Union, governed from Brussels. This would indicate that it is not a union itself that is being objected to but, rather, the unequal nature of the particular union with England where the latter appears unfairly dominant.

The Gordon Brown report seeks to address this inequality by promoting greater political powers from the London Government to Scotland. However, such permutations do not remove certain physical or structural characteristics which seem to me to be central to the inequality.

First, England should have a devolved parliament to match the other nations. (I understood from previous media reports that this was to be a proposal of the Brown report.)

Secondly, the UK seat of government should be relocated away from London, which is too distant from the other nations, both physically and culturally. Precedents exist across the globe where the main seat of government has been relocated to address regional rivalries and inequalities; for example a new capital city in Australia, Canberra, and, more recently Brussels, located in Belgium, one of the smaller nations within the European Union, chosen as the location for the parliament. If relocating to one of the other UK nations is not possible for practical, economic, or political reasons then a move to another location in England, more generally accessible to the other nations might be investigated.

A first suggestion could be a medium-sized town such as Chester, having historic and heritage status, clear from any rivalry which might arise between the larger English cities whilst at the same time being close to Wales and considerably nearer to Scotland and Ireland. The new devolved English parliament could occupy the vacated Westminster premises and London could get on with being the shared cultural icon it is.
Stephen Downs, Falkirk

Tories should act for all our sakes

THE country is torn by strikes in the midst of the serious economic woes facing us. If ever there was a time for compromise, this is it. However, with the Government's intransigence and the militancy of the trade unions, we seem to be far from any hope of compromise.

The public sector has had to endure 12 years of a government thirled to an ideology where a small state, deregulation and the demise of unions are high on the agenda.

During this period of Conservative control, austerity was introduced accompanied by low economic growth to be aggravated by the difficulties imposed by Brexit and the Northern Ireland Protocol and further compounded by Covid and lockdowns, then worsened by the conflict in Ukraine and deepened by the incompetence of the Truss regime. We are in an economic trough and the way out looks neither easy nor close.

This is where the unions and the Government have to take stock and come round to accepting that half a loaf is better than none.

Both sides will have to give ground to help the nation through this time of recession.

Until this party with its monetarist mindset is removed from office, the hopes of reducing the inequality which has widened since the Tories took office will be but a distant dream. Economic reform, entailing conditions of service not prejudicial to the welfare of workers and a fair wage for a fair day's work as well as a sector healthy public, is not in the DNA of the current Westminster Government. It has shot its bolt and has lost the confidence of the electorate.

Before the curtain comes down on the tragedy of the Tories, the final act should see the Government relaxing its strict adherence to its free market principles to enable the public to survive the economic disaster confronting the country. At least it would save face with such a late act of contrition before it is put out of its misery.
Denis Bruce, Bishopbriggs

Two ways to help the NHS

I AM a 52-year-old GP living and working in Ayrshire with 23 years' experience in General Practice. I last felt compelled to write to you in June 2015 when you kindly published my letter regarding the GP crisis. In spite of assurances I received from representatives of Westminster and Holyrood governments following similar communications, this situation has continued to deteriorate.

However, it is the unprecedented crisis that now befalls the entire NHS throughout the United Kingdom that has prompted this letter.

Having had (albeit limited) experience of working in the healthcare systems provided by several other countries, most notably Kenya and Malawi, as well having some knowledge of the systems operated in places such as the United States and France, I can without any hesitation say that our NHS has the potential to be (and quite rightly has been) the model healthcare system of the world.

I am neither qualified nor knowledgeable enough to comment on the nuts and bolts of its finances and I am not so naive as to discount the effects of the recent pandemic and (arguably) Brexit. And neither do I pretend to know the answers to such ethically challenging questions as how to re-prioritise finite resources every time a new potentially life-changing but hugely expensive treatment becomes available.

There are however two suggestions that I would make that I sincerely believe could make a significant difference both in the short and long term.

The first is simple and obvious. Politicians must cease to use the NHS as a means of winning votes. For many years now representatives of all political parties have made promises to the public that the NHS will meet this or that target, and yet they make these promises without an appreciation of what is required on the ground to achieve them. They also make promises that the NHS will do this or that simply because the public would like it to be so, rather than because (in the opinion of those of us at the coal face) they need it to be so. An obvious example in Scotland is free prescriptions for all regardless of how easy it might be for some people to afford them.

The other suggestion really passes into the territory of educationalists. When children are taught compulsory subjects such as mathematics and English, why should we not create a compulsory course teaching the basic understanding of minor illness and minor injury, an arguably far more important life skill? And in association, the history, the economics and the ethics of the NHS? Surely then our children and young adults would then grow up more able to discern when and how to make use of precious healthcare resources as well as having a proper respect for an incredible organisation that has now become utterly broken. If we do not wake up soon it may never recover.
Dr Gareth Powell, Salaried GP, Saltcoats

Letters should not exceed 500 words. We reserve the right to edit submissions.