THERE should be no surprise about Labour candidates doing little campaigning to let Tory candidates have a clear run in constituencies which the SNP currently hold.

The surprise deselection of their candidate in Aberdeen North and Moray East for comments he apparently made years ago – and didn’t result in him being pulled from previous elections – is simply Labour allowing Douglas Ross that.

It shouldn’t be surprising that there are back-room deals between the Unionist parties – especially the Tories and Labour who practically share the same manifesto commitments. If you were told a political party was backing bankers, lining up business support but refusing to remove the two-child cap on benefits – you would automatically assume this was the Tories.

But it’s Starmer’s Labour Party that has cosied up to the bankers again, no doubt planning PFI 2 to steal more public funds for the enrichment of the private sector! Labour can’t be trusted to do anything differently from the Tories. Maybe it’s about time they just became the one political party.

Councillor Kenny MacLaren

Paisley

THE Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) is to be applauded for tackling the elephant in the room in this General Election campaign – the stark choices whoever is elected will have to make in relation to the public finances.

We in the UK are experiencing the highest level of debt for more than 60 years, the tax burden is at a record high and public services are struggling. While the Government is paying huge interest on this debt, and welfare bills have grown; spending on health is likely to increase because of an ageing population, with the funding of defence also set to rise.

The solution to deliver increased investment and higher economic growth is a pipe dream in at least the short to medium term.

Taxes will therefore have to rise – despite a commitment by the main political parties not to raise VAT, National Insurance or income tax – or cuts will have to be made in public services. The alternative is to borrow more and see debt continue to escalate.

The main political parties must end this conspiracy of silence and be honest with the public as to what is in store further down the line. However, I would urge the voters not to hold their breath on this happening.

Alex Orr

Edinburgh

ALL we hear about in Scotland is the supposed waste of money regarding the ferries, but ferries and everything else pale into insignificance when put against the PPE procurement scandals.

As the BBC reported this week, about £1.4bn worth of PPE was destroyed or written off from a single contract. The owners of the firm were said to have bought a £30m seafront villa in Barbados, a yacht, a £6m house in south of England and an international equestrian centre in Bedfordshire.

It is now four years since the first lockdown and the Department of Health continues to store and dispose of billions of items of PPE at a cost of millions every week.

The Government’s panic to procure PPE opened doors for opportunists and middlemen in unrelated industries to make extortionate margins of profit. Wes Streeting has said the money lost could have paid for 37,000 nurses.

This is only one example of monies wasted by a Tory Westminster government – we also have HS2, battleships that don’t get past the Isle of Wight, tanks we are still waiting for etc etc.

Here in Scotland let’s not forget PFI and the millions this costs councils and health services every year. Thanks Labour for that – still paying for that 17 years later. But “what about the ferries?” is the lament we hear.

Winifred McCartney

Paisley

DOES the complaining of those embroiled in the election betting scandal at being named sound like howling hypocrisy to you?

There are significant comparisons we must make, the most obvious being the ongoing slower-than-snail’s pace, ultra-publicised investigation into the SNP finances, which seems to resurface in the press any time the party seems to be having a good week. If you’re a Scottish SNP politician, it’s murder investigation-style police tents on the lawn but no comment we’re busy if you’re a Tory.

Coupled with the decade-long platforming of the fascist Farage – a man who is on his eighth attempt to wrangle a seat in Parliament and whose private company is profiting from all the free publicity given him by the British press – there are serious questions that need to be asked about the state of UK democracy when the mainstream/legacy media seem uninterested in basic investigative impartiality.

Amanda Baker

Edinburgh

VOTE Labour if ...

1) You are a true English patriot;

2) You don’t want to be in the EU;

3) You want privatisation of the NHS;

4) You don’t want Waspi women to get what they are due;

5) You want nuclear power stations in Scotland (and the associated nuclear waste);

6) You want to keep Trident in Scotland;

7) You want Scottish students to pay for their education;

8) You want the bedroom tax;

9) You want to keep anti-trade union legislation

10) You want an end to free prescriptions, free bus travel etc

11) You want Scottish energy to be controlled by London;

12) You don’t want Scotland to run its own affairs;

Yes, vote Labour, the “True party of English Patriotism”.

Kerr Walker

Alford