Readers' letters: Nursing strikes highlight Tory hypocrisy

Ian Swanson hits the nail on the head with his column on the current wave of strikes (News, January 3).

As a Royal College of Nursing lobbyist in the late 80s/early 90s I well remember Rule 12 of the RCN's constitution, which committed the College to a no strike policy and the myriad of protests, negotiations and effort put in to maintain that policy to ensure decent pay and conditions for our 300k plus members.

A poster at the time showed a nurse with a halo, sitting in front of an empty plate with a fork and knife which said 'even angels need to eat.' The sheer hypocrisy of the current UK government with all the pointless clapping during Covid beggars belief, as my old friend Sylvia Denton RCN President who saw six health secretaries come and go during her tenure would have said were she alive today.

They are an utter disgrace and the public can see right through them.

Marjorie Thompson, Edinburgh

Murray overlooks toxic Brexit legacy

Ian Murray wonders why the SNP is attacking the English Labour Party.

Let’s start with Labour’s inexplicable support for a disastrous Brexit that is making the UK poorer and more isolated than ever.

Murray ignores that every region of Scotland voted to remain in the Single Market. UK GDP has shrunk 5.2 per cent and inflation is higher than the rest of the G7 because of Brexit.

Trade deals with Australia and New Zealand are minuscule compared with the gaping hole left by Brexit, and were so poorly negotiated that they will drive Scottish farmers out of business.

Then there’s Labour’s failure to support the trade unions in their fight for fair pay increases after a decade of austerity and now record inflation. Instead, Keir Starmer sacks a shadow minister who dares to show support for public sector workers who have endured real pay cuts for years and are resorting to food banks to feed their families.

Starmer refuses to acknowledge what everyone else knows – that the privatisation of public services has been a catastrophe. Private companies skim off profits for shareholders and fail to invest in the workforce and infrastructure with the result that vital public services – transport, teaching, health care, energy – are on their knees and the whole population is suffering.

The coup de grace, however, is Labour blocking Scotland’s right to choose its future. With a Labour party so profoundly out of touch with Scotland, it’s a wonder Scotland has even a single Labour MP.

Leah Gunn Barrett, Edinburgh

BBC radio is gaga

The decline of BBC Radio Scotland is well described by Douglas Cowe (letters, 31 December).

Some presenters sound like a schoolgirl chat, and the phrasing of road and weather reports renders them incomprehensible.

The days of journalists such as the late Mike Russell and Neville Garden, who actually gave us news, are over.

BBC Scotland has lost its “sound” and with that, its audience.

Malcolm Parkin, Kinross

‘Inhumane’ NHS

A leading clinician Dr John Paul Loughrey describes some NHS Scotland A&E departments as 'inhumane’ in the way some patients are being treated.

When is our First Minister Nicola Sturgeon going to waken up to this crisis and take real action and sack her Health Minister and make a start to getting NHS Scotland back on track to even minimum service levels?

D Forbes Grattan, Aberdeen

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