Letters to The National, April 9

DEAR Sam Cam,

I don’t usually read the Mail but I was compelled to read your interview. Just to say I did not pay for it. You try to portray a tale of everyday normality and the oxymoron which is “caring conservatism”.

According to you there should be a “safety net” which none can slip through and you spoke movingly of life with your disabled child Ivan and how much he taught you. You struggled to get Ivan into a specialist school. Many of us share your concerns but we worry about how your husband’s government’s policies are impacting on our lives.

Cuts to Disability Living allowance for vulnerable children, the closure of essential services, and cutbacks in the NHS are having a huge impact on us. Many more families are at breaking point. I know of families on “high priority” for respite who have been waiting years to get a service, while they care for their loved ones at home with no support.

The thing that surprises me is you genuinely don’t seem to know about these cases. Why are you so misinformed? Is it a form of Stockholm syndrome where you are only told the facts they want you to hear, or do you see the world through Tory-tinted glasses?

You want your husband to serve another five years. The very thought fills me with dread, especially when I speculate who some of his coalition partners might be.

I ask you as a mum to come and meet some of my friends and find out the impact of Tory policies on our already-fragile lives. Your life in your No 10 flat is a million miles away from our ordinary lives. So come and speak to us, not a government adviser or someone paid to represent carers. Come and explain to us why your husband’s policies are Christian and still have a safety net. I tell you this is not the case.This crucial safety net is being dragged away from under our feet.

I hope you have learned from little Ivan. My boys have taught me so much but have also made me feel compassion for others. I know too I can call on my friends for help: they have my back. I don’t think you can understand this or why many have so much contempt for your husband’s policies. People are waking up to the truth now though.

So please come and meet us and hear what is happening directly from us.

Sandra Webster 
Scottish Socialist Party national co-spokesperson and SSP candidate for Paisley and Renfrewshire South

JIM Murphy and Alistair Darling along with their Better Together Unionist friends were vociferous in their calls for a Plan B when it came to the Yes campaign’s policy of adopting sterling in an independent Scotland. But now that the shoe is on the other foot Mr Murphy refuses to even contemplate a Plan B for after the General Election on May 7. Murphy says that it is Plan A or nothing, ie a Labour majority must be secured.

Despite all the evidence of the polls he will not – and neither will his leader, Ed Miliband – commit to a Plan B to rid the UK of a Tory government, ie an arrangement between the anti-Tory parties, including the SNP, to stop the keys of No 10 falling into the hands of David Cameron and George Osborne.

Why is Murphy so scared of giving a straight answer? Is it because his Plan B is to side with the Tories instead of the anti-austerity SNP (certainly his voting track-record at Westminster suggests that they are more natural allies).

If it was good enough for Alex Salmond to produce a Plan B, why shouldn’t Jim Murphy? Fess up Jim – do you support the Tories (biggest party regardless) or an anti-Tory coalition, loose or otherwise?

Dr Jim Walker
Hong Kong

I AM somewhat curious as to how EU citizens who are not British expect the right to vote outside of EU elections while they are resident in Scotland. I have been living in Germany since I left the army in 1994 and no matter how much I would like to vote in the German elections, both local and national, I cannot as I am Scottish, not German. I could not vote in Scotland either as I was not resident there, so I had to sit on the sidelines during the indy ref.

Unless I take German citizenship, which I am entitled to do, but would never contemplate as I am Scottish and intend to return at retirement, I will not be able to vote in anything apart from the EU elections as long as the UK remains a member, but only for my local German candidates.

The Spanish and Italians in your article must not have deregistered their place of residence to be eligible to vote in their own countries. There is nothing wrong with a system that only allows nationals of a country to vote. Others have not shown any loyalty to that country and so don’t get the right to vote.

Andy Hurley
Germany

I HAVE noticed, and not for the first time, that the Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy brought the football team he supports, Celtic, into his election conversation in last night’s TV debate. Does he believe it will win him votes with the fans of the largest football team in Scotland? I cannot recall any other politician aligning themselves with a particular team. My view is that football should not be allowed to enter politics.

Peter Robert Davidson
Glasgow

NOTE to politicians and journalists who grace the TV: Refer to me as an individual, a member of society, a citizen, a person. I am not a punter. I am certainly not a common man or woman. I refer to the leader of Labour in Scotland in STV’s leader debate and to the journalists interviewed on STV. If those with influence want respect offer the public respect.

Su Johnson
Irvine

THE Scottish Government has been busy eroding the entitlement to concessionary bus travel in Scotland and it has ensured that many of those who qualified for the free bus-pass are no longer eligible.

Many people under 60, with severe disabilities and hearing impairments, have had to reach a much higher threshold and as a result many Scots have been stripped of their entitlement to a free bus pass.

Many of those who managed to surmount the barriers erected by the Scottish Government have had to renew the bus-pass on an annual basis rather than enjoy the three-year cards issued for the over 60s.

People who cannot read a number plate, as stipulated by DVLA, have been particularly badly treated when trying to obtain a free bus pass.

Despite surrendering their driving licences to DVLA, and thus qualifying for concessionary travel, they have had to re-apply to DVLA annually, at the request of the Scottish Government, for the required authorisation to obtain a free bus pass.

However, DVLA is no longer issuing authorisation to those who surrendered their driving licences and as a result people are being denied concessionary travel.

The Scottish Government is fully aware of the actions of DVLA, but it chooses to look the other way whilst Scots who qualify for the free bus pass are denied them. Then again, the Scottish Government has been attacking the free bus pass entitlement for years.

Jim Stewart
Edinburgh

AS a regular reader of The National, I was amused and a little dismayed at the quick appearance of the term “Frenchgate” to describe the recent ministerial “leak”.

We have so far had Irangate, Lobbygate, Cashforquestionsgate and more ... Every scandal is suffixed by gate! The usage of the term, of course, goes back to the Watergate scandal in the US in the 1970’s. The term has become journalese for: “Let’s make this a scandal.”

I look forward in the future to other scandal titles such as Gallowgate, Gardengate, and Gategate.

W J Graham
East Kilbride

ONCE again, those in the political wilderness are called upon to come to the rescue, just like the entrance of Gordon Brown last year for the Better Together campaign.

This year it is none other than Tony Blair called upon to come to Labour’s rescue as he delivers a speech on the UK’s future membership of the EU.

Two politicians past their sell-by-dates, two politicians who certainly left the country massive legacies – legacies we are still paying for. So, what did the man who tore the soul out of the Labour Party have to offer the country today?

The fear factor was the predominant message. Fear if the Tory’s get back into No 10 with the in-out referendum on membership of the EU to follow. Fear if the SNP’s predicted success at the election materialises.

And all this from Labour’s Tony Blair who took the Labour Party on a massive lurch to the right, making New Labour almost unelectable, certainly looking at it in Scotland.

Tony Blair entering the election is a timely reminder to voters that it was under his leadership that Labour brought in foundation hospitals in England, the start of the slippery slope of privatising the NHS, something the Tories have been happy to continue.

Mr Blair coming in from the political wilderness begs the question: “How many Scottish Labour candidates welcomed this intervention?”

Catriona C Clark
Banknock, Falkirk

AS we hear that the “ big guns “ from the Labour elite – Brown, Darling, even the alleged warmonger Blair and other big political names – are being prepared for another "march into Scotland" to prop up the disastrous Jim Murphy in the run-up to the General Election, is the silence not deafening on the famous Vow – the last promise made by those illustrious gentlemen? The latest draft Bill on the watered-down Smith proposals gives Westminster an absolute veto on any changes in welfare etc including any attempts to scrap the bedroom tax – the strings of Westminster very much remain intact.

If we do vote for a sizeable number of SNP MPs, as the polls seem to indicate, Scotland will be represented on many of the influential committees in Westminster and our opinion will finally matter.

The Crown Estate and the House of Lords are on top of the SNP “to sort” list – given the opportunity.

Let us help them to do it.

John G Mitchell
Direcleit, Isle of Harris