SNP has proud record governing Scotland - your views

"The unionist parties’ only goal is to stifle our ambitions for a fairer and more successful Scotland”

SNP has proud record governing Scotland

Amid all the media noise about the new list party Alba (Reminder 1 - no-one is obliged to vote for Alba’s candidates on May 6!) and the relentless criticism in the press about the supposed ‘anti-democratic’ SNP government (Reminder 2 – they were elected by Scottish voters at the last election!), it is worth a quick reminder about the achievements of Scotland’s government in the last 14 years, led by both Nicola Sturgeon and Alex Salmond.

Progressive Scottish government measures on: free prescriptions; free personal care for the elderly; abolition of college tuition fees; equal start (baby boxes); ‘period poverty’ (free feminine hygiene products); commitment to child payments and school holiday meals (to name a few), have made a real and welcome difference to the vast majority of ordinary Scots.

They also highlight the mean-spirited nature of the equivalent arrangements for our neighbours in England, and like many I am thankful that I live in a Scotland where our government prioritises the well-being of its citizens, over the interests of wealth and power,as in the rest of the UK.

Unlike Westminster, the SNP government is also committed to no privatisation of the Scottish NHS, a decent (four per cent) pay-rise for NHS staff and in this year of COP26 in Glasgow, to world-class legislation on a non-nuclear renewable energy future for our country, to support the global fight against devastating climate change.

It is difficult to imagine a Holyrood administration led by Messrs Ross, Sarwar or Rennie delivering even a fraction of these things, given their unionist obsession with keeping Scotland locked inside the increasingly shabby UK at any cost.

Mr D Jamieson, Newington, Edinburgh.

EU have done us no favours over vaccine

Former MEP David Martin and others need to stop the false narrative of a generous EU in respect of vaccines and be reminded that the EU has not exported any vaccines to anyone.

Private companies which happen to be situated in the EU have exported vaccines to the UK and elsewhere as a result of privately agreed contracts. Nor has the UK government been banning the export of vaccines to the EU. It has been the EU who has tried to stop these companies exporting vaccines to the UK and elsewhere.

Paul Lewis, Guardwell Crescent, Edinburgh.

Church leaders wrong over judicial review

Neil Barbour (letters, March 29) rightly questioned the judicial review that ruled in favour of Scottish churches being allowed preferential treatment over lifting of Covid restrictions.

Due to powerful political lobbying our judicial and parliamentary systems have always shown an excess of deference towards religion.

Judge Lord Braid appar-ently ignored the fact that we are fighting a deadly virus and found that govern-ment restrictions interfered with the freedom of religion in the European Convention on Human Rights.

I believe church leaders were wrong to launch this judicial review and Lord Braid was wrong to ignore the fact that Covid restrictions are all about fighting a deadly virus that has claimed thousands of lives in Scotland and nothing to do with interfering with the freedom of religion.

When most of us are making daily sacrifices for the common good, church leaders should have led by example and been last to open their doors. This was a bad decision in my opinion and only demonstrates the democratic deficit inherent in our democracy.

Jack Fraser, Clayknowes Drive, Musselburgh.