Readers' letters: Post Brexit funding falls short of pledge

It is striking but not wholly unexpected that the Tories have broken yet another manifesto pledge by failing to match billions of pounds worth of EU development funding for UK nations and regions after Brexit.

The government pledged in its 2019 election manifesto that a new Shared Prosperity Fund would “at a minimum” match the £1.5bn a year in EU regional funds that was returned to the UK from its EU membership contributions, and “reaffirmed” that commitment in last October’s Budget.

These “EU structural funds” were designed to support economic development and reduce regional inequalities, particularly through investment in small businesses, skills and innovation, the green economy and other infrastructure projects.

However, according to Westminster’s Treasury Committee this Fund which is set to launch in April, will only be worth £400 million in 2022, rising to £700 million in 2023-24 and to £1.5 billion in 2024-25.

It is clear that despite UK Government assurances, the funding promised will not be delivered and this will hit key projects and communities.

Like so many aspects of Brexit, this broken promise is yet another addition to a growing list of broken promises.

Alex Orr, Edinburgh.

Our energy security is under threat by ban

When will green pressure groups currently demanding a premature halt to gas extraction licences in the North Sea realise that this will primarily result in more highly unwelcome energy price increases when demand is not curtailed?

Such action also inevitably results in an increase in imports from unreliable and undesirable sources, thereby undermining our energy security!

GM Lindsay, Kinross.

Alister Jack is backing wrong political horse

This week we saw the Westminster bear garden (conventionally known as “Parliament”) debating, if you can call it that, the heavily redacted Sue Gray report into the recent Downing Street shenanigans.

During the “debate” Ian Blackford MP asserted that Boris Johnson had “misled Parliament”.

This phrase, in Westminster terms, is the equivalent of calling Boris Johnson a liar. As a consequence Blackford left the chamber before he was suspended and forcibly removed from it.

So we have the farcical situation - not for the first time - that an MP who calls another MP a liar is suspended from the Westminster parliament while the MP who has allegedly lied is permitted to remain because whatever the truth of the matter (and I think we all have a shrewd idea about that) one MP simply cannot impugn the integrity of another under any circumstances whatsoever.

We then had the ridiculous, unedifying, spectacle of various Westminster government ministers being trotted out to do the rounds of radio and TV studios to defend the indefensible.

And our very own Boris Johnson acolyte, Alister Jack MP, standing up in parliament in order to assert what we all know to be complete rubbish, namely that “the Prime Minister is doing a fantastic job” and other such sycophantic nonsense.

When will people in the south of Scotland realise that people like Alister Jack and Boris Johnson do not care a whit about them. All they care about is hanging onto power by whatever means they consider necessary. I despair!

David Howdle, Dumfries.

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