REGARDLESS of one’s political persuasion, last week was a dreadful one for the Westminster Government from a Scottish point of view as it was accused of not listening and treating Scotland with contempt.

This has not been on just one issue, but all started with the shambles that is the EU Withdrawal Bill amendments and Scottish MPs being silenced. Then it was PMQs and the demand for democracy for the devolved parliament in Scotland being ignored to the extent that an SNP MP and leader of the SNP group at Westminster was expelled from the House.

Finally, in this dramatic week we have the National Audit Office damning the Westminster Government’s flagship welfare policy of Universal Credit (UC), currently being rolled out in Scotland. Its conclusion is that UC could cost more than current benefits due to administration eight years after the system kicked in, only 10% of the expected claimants are on the system, and finally it is not fit for purpose.

This report also highlighted that in areas where UC have been rolled out, increases in food bank use and rent arrears are evident, yet unbelievably the DWP does not accept UC is causing hardship. Are they not listening? Have they no conscience? We even hear government ministers claim changes to UC have been made, giving advanced payments to claimants, something that should not be needed if the system was fit for purpose.

But we must take into consideration that those advanced payments are loans which need paid back, driving claimants to loan sharks and more hardship. The Westminster Government may turn a deaf ear to the country as they continue with their Brexit shambles, which will ultimately cost our country’s economy and jobs. As with Brexit, time is running out on UC and the cruel and inhumane treatment of claimants. If our country is to prosper, we must be heard on Brexit and on the plight of the poor and vulnerable. We really can’t afford Mrs May’s policies much longer.

Catriona C Clark
Falkirk

MALCOLM Parkin makes a very important contribution to the independence debate in Saturday’s National (Letters, June 16). What value does independence have if our country is under the thumb of unelected international bankers who have control of money supply, which they are abusing? This is exactly what is happening in the UK today.

We are mounting a Campaign for a Clean Scottish Currency which is directed to the problem Malcolm is drawing attention to, and we are getting support from all over the country. See www.scottishindependencemovement.scot/clean-currency for information.

Andy Anderson
Saltcoats

ON the day I attended the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland last month, the ministers and others attending voted overwhelmingly for radical change to reverse the increasing gloom of falling membership, income and public interest in their message.

“Not ‘radical’, you numpties!” I wanted to shout, “Get relevant! OK, you’ll marry any couple anywhere, but how relevant is that to the general public nowadays?”

You are the Church of Scotland, my country’s Church. When you declared your independence from the Churches of Rome and England you led in education, you led in caring for the sick, you looked after the aged and above all you led in Scotland’s political life.

Not any more!

You surrendered your social purposes at home while continuing to support missions abroad, even built a hotel in Galilee, but faced with the great Scottish political issue of the decade, independence or Union, you sat on the fence and bleated about “reconciliation”. This is an issue on which the Church, Scotland’s National Church, would, in its prime, not have hesitated to opine, even at the price of offence to many of its members. I would have preferred to listen to a debate about how the National Church of Scotland could play its part in an independent Scotland.

As it is, those who deplore our Church’s decline may want to ask whether an institution which spends its time flapping like a wet hen when faced with a political decision deserves anything better.

Elizabeth Scott
Edinburgh

I WAS struck by what David Cairns (Letters, June 16) had to say about rugby player Byron McGuigan’s feelings about his sense of Scottishness.

For though we can analyse and discuss endlessly the details of economics and finance, in the last analysis what counts is our individual sense of identity and the relationship we feel to our land.

As the trumpeter Louis Armstrong said to someone who asked him what jazz was, “If you have to ask, you ain’t got it!”

Peter Craigie
Edinburgh