Last Saturday’s SNP conference confirmed that John Swinney is a two-trick pony. His election armoury consists of two items: first, promising his gullible party members that secession is tantalisingly close; second, that, after 19 weary years of SNP governance, his party has new strategies for improving Scotland, when all he is offering is more bribes to voters with money he will not have ("FM Swinney makes major pledges on childcare, housing, GPs and healthcare",The Herald, March 15).
A new £500 million childcare offer has so many caveats in it that it is a typical SNP leaky vessel, the most obvious sign that it is a con being that it is admitted that it will take a number of years to implement. Then there are the 30 (doubled from the original 15) "walk-in medical centres". Where are the premises for these to be found? With staff shortages in the NHS, where are the doctors and nurses to be found? Medical profession unions, who were not consulted about this promise, would like to know the answers to these questions.
This is more pie in the sky fantasy, admittedly from a party that has enjoyed electoral success by promising the earth and then providing thin gruel. With the big black hole that experts predict by 2030 in Scotland’s finances, and new public sector pay claims, there simply will not be the money to meet existing commitments, let alone new ones. Financial reality cannot, however, be allowed to intrude into SNP fantasy, and Scotland’s tragedy is that too many voters believe the Brigadoon delusions served up to them by the SNP.
The party’s loyal supporters actually believe that a favourable result in May will somehow force His Majesty’s Government to negotiate secession terms with the SNP. In one sense, it would be worth watching that to see their illusions being dashed. The closed mind introspection of Scottish nationalists blocks out any consideration of the sheer madness it would be to try to break up the UK in this era of great power volatility and aggression.
Those voting for Mr Swinney’s fantasy need to ask themselves how, realistically, it could ever be achieved.
Jill Stephenson, Edinburgh.
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Was this a joke?
As the Scottish elections approach, what a stroke of luck for the SNP that Labour is doing poorly in the polls, and to cap it all has extended the Energy Profits Levy.
This enables the likes of Stephen Flynn to cry crocodile tears over the loss of oil and gas jobs in the North-east, where he is standing for Holyrood, and elsewhere in Scotland.
This conveniently distracts voters from the fact that the SNP and its previous partners the Greens, with their "presumption against" new fossil fuel developments and the uncertainty over Scotland’s future in the UK had already put companies off fossil fuel investment.
I note that when he and the SNP decry Labour’s actions and call for solutions and more powers for Holyrood, they tend not to talk of oil and gas directly but of a "long-term strategy for the energy industry". A cynic would suggest that this choice of words is to allow them to revert to their original position after the election.
At the SNP campaign conference Mr Flynn claimed that “when the world is so uncertain there can never be a better time to create our own future”.
Was this a joke to test the reasoning powers of the electorate? The last thing we need in uncertain times is to add to it the certainty of additional complexity and distraction of a referendum campaign. In the unlikely event of a result in favour of separation there would then be years of protracted difficult negotiations on everything from currency to defence, share of national debt, border control, trade, pensions, energy to name but a few. It would be Brexit negotiations on steroids, costing the taxpayer money and deterring private investment at the very time we most need it. Does anyone really want to impose this burden on our politicians and ourselves?
Mark Openshaw, Aberdeen.
Heating bill handout derisory
The Government’s £53 million handout for households hit by soaring heating oil bills is derisory – basically loose change – against the Treasury’s looming windfall from sky-high energy prices ("Prime Minister announces fuel support for rural Scots as costs soar", The Herald, March 17).
If crude remains around $100 a barrel for six months, extra North Sea tax revenues alone could hit £2-3 billion. Yet Ed Miliband doubled down on Sunday, refusing new licences. Result? More (often dirtier) imports, lost government revenue, and exported British jobs and investment. This is crazy.
Unlike gas (mostly burned domestically), North Sea oil is mainly exported – yet it delivers proportionately higher taxes to HMRC at these prices. New licences and investment would have turbocharged that revenue and protected jobs and helped households on cost of living pressures. For Ed Miliband to claim increased domestic production would make no difference to what consumers pay is, in my view, a grotesque distortion of the facts.
Not only did he fail to get elected as PM, he now seems intent on making Labour’s chances of ever being re-elected nigh on impossible.
It is unacceptable for a selected few to receive this meagre £53 million via Rachel Reeves when Keir Starmer could pledge every single penny of extra oil and gas revenue to all hard-working British taxpayers – real relief against rocketing food, petrol, and living costs, not just a token headline-grabbing gesture by a beleaguered government.
Ian Lakin, Aberdeen.
PM should keep his distance
Donald Trump appears to think that being the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is the same as being President of the United States of America. Mr Trump fails to appreciate that Sir Keir Starmer holds office only with the support of Parliament and in particular those MPs who are members of the Labour Party. Given the history of our involvement in an earlier war in Iraq it is understandable that the United Kingdom should take no part in the war with Iran.
Last week Donald Trump announced that he did not require the United Kingdom to join the war against Iran after the United States had already won the war. What has changed in the last week? Are the armed forces deployed by the United States incapable of finishing off the war and which British troops are required to compensate for the failings of the United States?
If Sir Keir Starmer wishes to remain in post as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom he should give Mr Trump as wide a berth as possible. Tony Blair seriously blotted his record by supporting George W Bush in Iraq and it would be folly to repeat the same mistake again.
Sandy Gemmill, Edinburgh.
Trump caught in his own trap
Has Donald Trump realised what a mistake he has made? You have to wonder what advice his military commanders gave him before he pursued his air attacks upon Iran.
Not one of those experienced military advisers has popped his head above the parapet to cast doubt upon the strategy undertaken.
Let us ignore the foolish comment by POTUS when he urged the Iranians to rise up against their government, even although he must have known that the ordinary protesters had no access to weapons, without which any such uprising was bound to be futile. What surprises me even more than that particular inanity is that it appears that nowhere was it factored into the US strategy the need to secure the Hormuz Strait and to occupy Kharg Island to provide solid bases to stymie the Iranian retaliation we are now witnessing.
Our four-time draft dodger has managed to walk into a trap he set for himself and he has been flailing around, urging his allies to shoulder the risks in the Hormuz Strait where he dare not send his warships. And this is the man who boasted that America would never again be involved in any more forever wars.
He is now caught up in a maze of misery from which he will slink away with his tail between his legs amid the empty and vapid claim that his mission is complete while leaving the theocratic regime still in control of Iran.
Donald Trump has now set himself up as America's Toom Tabard, a wizard of Oz without the whizz.
Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping will then be fully aware that they have nothing to fear from this temporary occupant of the White House and that they can proceed with impunity with their ambitions.
Denis Bruce, Bishopbriggs.
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