The political pundits' Holyrood election topic du jour seems to be the need for honesty about the next government's looming £4.7 billion funding gap. From what I've seen so far the parties all admit it exists but their implied or stated solutions vary greatly in detail, or should I say vagueness.
We have the SNP prefacing its answers by first of all blaming Westminster then hinting at cuts to frontline services (cheaper to have them off the payroll and the UK paying their dole money), "getting people back into the workforce" and off benefits (a big ask given there are 900k either economically inactive or registered unemployed and only 80k job vacancies), and asking those with the "broadest shoulders" to pay more tax, ignoring the fact their shoulders are increasingly slopey as "strivers" work fewer hours and move out. Labour seems largely similar but more likely to revert to UK income tax levels.
Reform and the Conservatives point to Scotland's £6.2bn quangocracy spend and lax benefits system, especially Social Security Scotland, its 4,000 staff and soft-touch claims process and the need to reduce taxes. Reform seems to be a bit clearer on what it would actually do. The Greens are more "funding gap? What funding gap? For goodness sake we need more heat pumps and put everybody on UBI (Universal Basic Income) to pay for it!"
But one thing they do nod and frown sagely on is the need for growth. The polls suggesting an SNP minority government with 30% or less of the vote support my solution: let the people who got us into this mess – the SNP – be the ones who have to sort it out, empowered and forced to make the necessary brutal choices by the array of opposition parties understandably relieved they aren't in charge. And, with less than 20% of Scotland's total electorate supporting them, Indyref2 absolutely off the agenda.
Allan Sutherland, Stonehaven.
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Promised land is a mirage
John Swinney is trying to gee up his troops for the May election by saying that an SNP victory would lead to a referendum in 2028. Perhaps he didn’t hear the dusty answer that the Supreme Court gave Nicola Sturgeon’s emissary a few years ago: Holyrood cannot unilaterally call a referendum. Further, Westminster will not sanction one on the basis of 35 per cent of the vote – which seems about what the SNP will achieve.
We got used to Ms Sturgeon telling us every year for about seven years that there would be a referendum "next year". Why she asked the Supreme Court the question was never clear, since she was always likely to be rebuffed. Now John Swinney has so little care for Scotland and Scots that he is desperate to be the First Minister who turns Scotland into a small state outside both the UK and the EU – whatever dishonest promises he makes about an independent Scotland being in the EU – and one with an even more massive deficit than its current 11.2 per cent.
The promised land of SNP goodies that he mendaciously offers his gullible followers is a mirage.
Jill Stephenson, Edinburgh.
Spare us the UK freebies
Mark Openshaw (Letters, April 6) warns young Scots that with independence they will spend the rest of their lives as taxpayers paying for "freebies" such as prescriptions, university tuition and public transport – and I will not omit overdue ferries. As a higher-rate taxpayer I have spent the last 30 years paying for the "freebies" of a US-controlled nuclear base, wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Ukraine, billions still being squandered on the aborted HS2 rail project and support for genocide in Gaza. I will gladly trade the freebies provided by our colonial masters for the chance to have our Scottish nation restored to its historic place among the international community and liberation from the Zionism of Keir Starmer, the madness of Donald Trump and the homicidal obsession of Benjamin Netanyahu.
We can still rise and be a nation again all day, every day – not just at the Six Nations rugby and the football World Cup.
Willie Maclean, Milngavie.
PM must overrule Miliband
It is entirely wrong that the future of North Sea oil and gas, the future of families whose livelihoods depend on jobs in the sector, the future of businesses large and small, should be in the hands of one man, eco-zealot Ed Miliband. The Prime Minister should have the backbone to overrule him and like our neighbour Norway, go full throttle to support this home-grown industry.
There is a gold mine under the North Sea and thousands of jobs but our socialist friends couldn't care less.
Douglas Cowe, Newmachar.
Are we complicit in genocide?
US President Donald Trump sets another deadline, his fifth in the war with Iran that was going to be “over in days” but is now in its sixth week.And the UK is being dragged further into the swamp. Bunker-buster bombs are being loaded onto US planes at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire.
Our Prime Minister Keir Starmer bowed to pressure from the White House and allowed the US to use UK bases for the “defensive purpose" of destroying Iranian missiles.
It looks like they are going a wee bit further than that.
The latest hit, although not officially confirmed, was on Sharif University, an attack described by Iran’s Vice-President Mohammad Reza Aref as “a symbol of Donald Trump’s madness and ignorance”, and who would argue with that?
Mr Aref adds that Mr Trump "does not understand that Iran's knowledge is not in concrete to be destroyed by bombs... no brutality in history has been able to take knowledge from Iranians”.
That’s the sort of language and logic Mr Trump simply wouldn’t understand.
And don’t forget Israel’s involvement in this war. It’s just taken out Iran’s intelligence chief in another targeted assassination.
But Benjamin Netanyahu will be happy that's taking attention away from Gaza where the Israel Defense Forces continue to kill Palestinians and aid workers.
As the UK supplies Israel with arms and surveillance, how complicit are we in what a United Nations Commission of Inquiry has described as genocide?
Andy Stenton, Glasgow.
This too shall pass
President Trump’s diatribe ("Trump issues threat to target more of Iran’s infrastructure after US confirms missing airman found ‘safe and well’", The Herald, April 6) will have left readers shaking their heads in despair about the quality of leadership in the USA. That feeling of dejection should be resisted.
Those of us with first-hand knowledge of the warm welcome experienced in the USA can testify that the behaviour of the foul-mouthed convicted felon is atypical. Yes, there are problems aplenty, but there is a lot more kindness than blind fury amongst the common people of that country.
Donald Trump’s term as President will eventually come to an end. There is comfort to be found in remembering “This too shall pass” and a delicious irony in pointing out the adage is thought to be Persian, that is Iranian, in origin.
Bob Scott, Drymen.
Trump is not our friend
I agree with Trevor Rigg (Letters, April 3) that King Charles shouldn’t visit America while its leader is conducting an illegal war which, beyond the human suffering caused, will also do great damage to the UK economy. President Trump is not our friend and America is no longer a reliable ally.
Given the brutality of the US action, the terrible strike that killed over 100 young children, the attacks on health facilities and civilian infrastructure, and the insistence that there will be “no stupid rules of engagement”, it may only be a matter of time before Donald Trump joins his junior partner Benjamin Netanyahu as an indicted war criminal. There are already quite enough embarrassing photos in the royal family photo album, and the thought of news bulletins showing our head of state socialising with such a disreputable character makes my skin crawl.
Doug Maughan, Dunblane.
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