SURELY even SNP strategists, and those of other independence-supporting parties, can see by now that discrediting the policies of the Labour Party is their only route to success in the coming election?

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. We need posters all over Scotland with pictures of Blair and Brown at the top and of Starmer and Reeves at the bottom, with a caption in between that says: “These two guys accelerated the privatisation of the NHS – do we seriously expect this pair to do anything different?”

One of the main problems in the health service today is availability of hospital beds, often cited as the reason for delays in emergency admissions, but also contributing to a general inability to satisfy demand.

The number has fallen by around 10% since 2010, even as the population has grown and aged, and its general health has deteriorated.

It now stands at less than half the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development average, second to bottom of the list of 23 countries and only a third of the number in Germany.

Successive governments, Labour and Conservative, have assumed that privatisation and the “efficiency” that will bring to the system, combined with consolidation of treatment into ever larger super-hospitals, can overcome chronic underfunding.

All the evidence points in the opposite direction and that needs to be brought to the front of the political debate.

Cameron Crawford

Rothesay

I USED to enjoy reading The National but that enjoyment is now tempered by a stream of letters telling us that the SNP approach to independence is wrong.

What I fail to see is any indication of an approach that is most likely to achieve independence.

Instead we have splinter groups such as Alba, whose main aim seems to be to attack the SNP but without coming up with any credible alternative plan for government.

Meanwhile the LibDems seem to think that the lack of public toilets is currently the most important issue for the Scottish Government and it seems all the Unionist parties feel that not enough is being spent on this or that whether it be the NHS, the police, roads, railways or whatever.

However, they blissfully ignore the fact that the funding of the Scottish Government is dependent on the crumbs which fall from the Westminster table and that the two main parties south of the Border seem hell-bent on reducing public spending so our share becomes less and less.

Only two European countries have successfully split into their constituent parts in recent decades – Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia.

The first was achieved after armed conflict and the second by mutual agreement between two constituent parts of relatively similar size.

I can’t imagine armed conflict as a solution here and the other seems very unlikely when we have very unequal constituent nations.

So, how do we achieve independence? How do we get the different independence groups to come together? How do we persuade a majority of the population that an independent Scotland would be so much better?

Ian Lawson

Milngavie

SO the Right Honourable Lord David Cameron has a plan to end the Israeli war on Gaza, through a political process.

A four-point plan apparently wrapped up in just four sentences, according to Wednesday’s National. His so-called Plan A is:

1. A temporary pause.

2. A sustainable ceasefire.

3. Hamas leaders removed.

4. Terrorist infrastructure taken down.

Wow! Not very original but then Cameron is a failed prime minister, having done a runner 10 years ago. I would love to know what US secretary of state Antony Blinken thought as he listened to an English lord’s words of wisdom?

To top it all, Cameron reckons that if Plan A doesn’t work, which it hasn’t to date, “we” should consider a “Plan B”, whatever that might be. No ideas coming from Cameron on that notion.

To make matters worse, Cameron announced to the world that the UK will not be suspending arms sales to Israel. I just hope the Westminster Parliament is aware of this statement, as the rest of us have not been informed.

His other statement was that regardless of the legal advice proffered (possibly against selling arms to Israel), the UK Government will be acting in a way that is consistent with that advice. Isn’t that a contradiction?

He said: “We are a government under the law and that’s as it should be”. So says a government that created Brexit, has no constitution, and makes up laws as it goes along, changing them in the process whenever it feels like it.

I’m pretty sure a political process has been tried with Netanyahu, without success! The only thing that matters with him is the total annihilation of Hamas, even if it means the death of 33,000 Gazan civilians and the total destruction of all buildings including schools and hospitals.

All this under the suggestion (without any evidence) that Hamas has been hiding in the latter buildings under the pretext of using the Gazan people as human shields.

Cameron seems to be clueless beyond the fact that it’s business as usual with Israel.

Alan Magnus-Bennett

Fife

WHO is the bright spark on the staff of The National who doesn’t know the difference between a puffer (Picture of the Day, April 11), the traditional workhorse of Scotland’s west coast, and a fishing boat?

Bruce Moglia

via email

THAT’S VIC 32, Para Hardy’s Vital Spark. It’s a puffer. “The smartest ship in the trade”. Great photo! Thank you.

Ann Leitch

via email