HAVE you ever tried to shift a piano upstairs? Pulled a heavy bin along the road? Dug the garden all afternoon?

If you were over 60, I’ll bet you wished that you hadn’t. I’d even put money on you not wanting to do it again in a hurry..

Now Westminster is considering raising the pension age to 68 ("Retirement age could rise to 68", The Herald, January 25). Do they want to make sure that lower-paid heavy manual workers never receive the benefit of the National Insurance pension that they have paid into all their working lives?

Moving men, bin men, road menders, builders, farm workers, cleaners: the list is endless. Their chance of a golden period of retirement paid for by the money they have paid all their working life is being seriously threatened. Labour and the unions seem disinterested.

This is an act dreamed up by sedentary workers, Conservative MPs who want an increased government income to allow them to lower the taxes of other rich Conservatives.

Who pays you your pension? At present the UK Treasury.

What with? Mostly with the National Insurance contributions from Scots who pay National Insurance. It all goes down to Westminster at present.

Until Scotland is independent with its own caring government at Holyrood, everyone who pays National Insurance is now at risk of an ever-increasing working life which can be life-threatening.

Brexit is beggaring Scotland, but a pension age of 68 could be a killer.

It is time for Scotland to take back control.
Elizabeth Scott, Edinburgh

Turn fire on UK government

REGARDING Keith Howell's letter (January 27) – a missive relying on half-truths and fitabootery of the most pernicious kind – could I suggest that is perhaps Mr Howell who "seems to have an inexhaustible supply of invective and exaggerated vitriol" and he aims it unswervingly at the First Minister?

But strangely for someone so concerned about good governance, Mr Howell's criticisms never seem to be directed at Scotland's other government in London, where news of ministers involving sleaze, tax avoidance and the breaking of international law seems almost de rigeur.

Much as it pains Mr Howell, Nicola Sturgeon is the elected head of the Scottish Government, with her party supported by 47 per cent of the electorate in the 2021 election. Every time Mr Howell takes an unjustified pop at her, he is taking a pop at the almost-half of the Scottish population who think she is doing a fine job.
David Patrick, Edinburgh


Can you really believe Zahawi?

STATISTICALLY speaking, a third of the UK electorate has an IQ less than 80. I wonder if they believe multi-millionaire businessman and entrepreneur Nadhim Zahawi sat all alone at home, pen and paper in hand and without any professional advice, when he made what he describes as an honest mistake in his tax returns concerning a pile of money that is multiples of what most of us will ever see, never mind earn?

Being smart enough to tie my own shoelaces, I struggle to find his excuse remotely plausible, as apparently did the taxman. His feeble explanation and Westminster's response is an insult to my and the UK electorate’s intelligence and treats our so-called democratic system with contempt.
David J Crawford, Glasgow

Britain is in steep decline

ANDY Maciver gets a lot correct in his article ("I am ashamed by paucity of ambition within our country", The Herald, January 27), but he needs to expand and deepen his critique. After 15 years of the most rigid austerity in the western world, the UK is in steep decline.

There are as many dying weekly in the UK because of ER waits as died during Covid-19. Ten per cent of the population are on NHS waiting lists as investment in health infrastructure has halved. By the end of next year the average UK family will be poorer than the average Slovenian family, and by the end of the decade have a lower standard of living than the average Polish one (according to John Burn-Murdoch of the Financial Times). Academic analysis by Nicholas Crafts and Terence C Mills suggests the slowdown in British productivity Is “the worst in 250 years”.

Real wages have actually declined in the last 15 years and millions of young workers have no experience of wage growth at all. There is no real long-term investment by the private sector, preferring financial speculation and “sweating” assets. Our civil service and public service broadcaster (especially in Scotland) are compromised and honest politics is a thing of yesteryear. Of course the UK is still wealthy, but its wealth is ill-divided and too much is hidden away in British Crown Dependency tax havens.

Labour cannot come to the rescue as it will start a new government with the same quotation as it left its last occupancy: “there is no money left”. A de facto referendum (if it happens) may end Nicola Sturgeon's career, but it won’t end the demand for serious constitutional change.
GR Weir, Ochiltree

Indy needs a super-majority

AS a 60/40 unionist I have good news for the First Minister: I believe that she should push to have Indyref2 now. However, I doubt that she will agree as, I am fairly sure, she will think that the timing is not right.

And she would be absolutely correct, as any vote now would be influenced by current events and would possibly result in her failing to achieve her goal once again, and that would only lead to more friction in our country between two evenly-balanced polarised groups.

Surely any future vote on the future of our country must be decided by a substantial majority, perhaps 60/66% of the entire electorate. That, in my opinion, would ensure a more considered outcome and not one based on knee-jerk reactions to recent events.
W MacIntyre, East Kilbride


Does wisdom lie with our youth?

WESTMINSTER has consistently opposed the suggestion that 16-year-olds should have a say in their future through elections or decisions on gender, presumably because such matters should be left to their elders. Then I turn to the Letters Pages of Scotland’s quality press, filled as they are with contributions from those in retirement who fill their declining years with repetitive assertion, often tinged with bile, on constitutional issues which are unlikely to be of practical concern to them save on a fairly limited horizon. Does wisdom lie with them, or with youth which has neither the time nor the inclination to indulge in such dialogues of the deaf?
James Scott (age 90), Edinburgh

Bank wake-up call for Scotland

THE much-vaunted £2 billion Scottish National Investment Bank has invested very little of its headline amount in its two years of existence ("£2bn state bank ‘clueless’ about new boss a year after shock exit", The Herald, January 27). It is known in some very small circles of the curious as "SNIB". Interestingly, a snib is defined as "a lock, latch, or fastening for a door or window"; it is generally used for preventing access. Also, Snib Scott was a hermit who lived in a cave near Lendalfoot, which may too be relevant as he originally trained as an accountant.

Perhaps, looking at its performance, SNIB might be renamed the Scottish National Underinvestment Bank or "SNUB", which also reflects the reality of recruiting seriously competent, non-ideologically-minded leaders to run it and the true level of remuneration demanded of such a position. Indeed it is a wake-up call for the Scottish Government regarding any serious investment in exceptional people for an independent Scotland.

Having said that, a year ago, the outgoing chief executive was rewarded with 50 per cent of her salary, £117,500, on her resignation in lieu of working her notice, taking her total earnings for15 months' work to £480,000 plus six months' additional leave of absence. Her garden must be in very good order.
Peter Wright, West Kilbride

Benefits of the British Empire

I WONDER which aspects of the British Empire Alan Cumming finds so toxic ("Cumming returns OBE over British Empire’s ‘toxicity’", The Herald, January 28)?

The Empire gave 25 per cent of the world democracy, education, the civil service, the abolition of infanticide, freedom of speech and the press; modern railways, irrigation, the banning of suttee in India (where a widow died on her husband's funeral pyre); English, a major international language; literature, the abolition of slavery, modern communications, property rights, trade, defence, the rule of law; health services, women's rights; even cricket and football.

I suggest Cumming does some reading before grabbing the opportunity for cheap publicity.
John V Lloyd, Inverkeithing

Train drivers are paid too much

WITH reference to your article on Saturday regarding train drivers’ jobs ("4,500 apply for 116 train driver jobs", The Herald, January 28), a junior economist could tell you that if you have 4,500 applications for any job then the salary is too high.
In any organised country, with the right priorities, a nurse’s salary should be in the region of £50,000 per year. It would be better to have 4,500 applicants for this sector and somewhat fewer for train driving.
The junior economist would know how to redress the balance.
Brian Wilson, Glasgow.


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