Readers' letters: Westminster rule is damaging Scotland

Under Westminster control, the value of the pound is falling. Inflation has been pushed up by higher interest rates, Brexit and the obscene profits of energy companies. There are billions of pounds lost in corrupt contracts in the PPE scandal, without benefit to the NHS.

Where Art I? Edinburgh Sketcher, 13 February 2023

Jeremy Hunt plans further energy bill rises from April. Martin Lewis says he must act to reverse them. More than 1.7 million households could be plunged into fuel poverty.

Yet harmful fossil fuel companies - some Conservative party donors - remain lightly taxed and favourably regulated by Ofgem, at our expense.

The UK government also goes ahead with disastrous new fossil fuel projects, harming life for future generations and the economy.

Following Brexit, for which Scotland did not vote, there is a shortage of skilled labour and business cannot export easily to Europe. Red tape raises their costs.

Under Westminster rule our right to peaceful protest is being taken away. Rishi Sunak has said he would also take the UK out of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Pol Yates, Edinburgh

When fairness counts the Greens bottle it

Lorna Slater, Green MSP, stated in her blog in May 2021 “…there was no great revelation of how unequal our systems are…” and “…The crises of poverty, poor health and climate are all linked, and so must our solutions be…”

The Green Party, or should that be the Gender Party, have been given a place in government despite low public support. The Greens prop up the hopeless SNP in running Scotland.

Slater sees nothing wrong with chauffeur driven trips to Fife and beyond.

Flying to, of all things, an obscure green conference in Canada was fine – ever heard of video calling?

We have all to sit in the cold and dark, cycling everywhere, using public transport and not flying, while the leaders ignore the environment, and enjoy the benefits of large salaries and gold-plated pension arrangement.

We now find Slater has private medical and dental health care. Is this part of the fairer society that the government promotes?

She was given respon-sibility to find a system for returning bottles to a shop, which has failed to materialise, with widespread condemnation of all the extra costs to be passed on to us, products will be withdrawn, and small businesses closed down.

I recall the days when we took the bottles back and received the money, long before we had a government minister, civil servants et all, paid to find a system.

Alastair Murray, Edinburgh

Whatever happed to devolved benefits?

Another promise bites the dust. The SNP admin-istration assured the people of Scotland that they would take over the payment of all devolved benefits by 2020.

Once again their eyes were surely off the ball and their concentration elsewhere – perhaps on the new GRR Law, or changing the Census date and making the results meaningless, or pretend embassies, or continuation of perennial grievances and begging for a referendum no-one wants – who knows?

The result was they were unable and unready to start to take over what the benefits they promised they would until we are told around 2026. What’s six years among friends?

I think it can be safely concluded that the only thing at which this ultra-incompetent administration excels is creating new grievances and force-feeding the people of Scotland Gender Laws the majority demonstrably detest.

Alexander McKay, Edinburgh

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