I MUST say a big thank you to George Kerevan, who in his Monday column said exactly what I was thinking regarding a Scottish election (The government of Scotland shouldn’t be doing dirty work of Westminster, Aug 19).

We can all see the future in front of us and it is not a pretty sight. The Labour Party are already in trouble and things won’t get any better for them, or us for that matter. Even before a single vote is cast, the Scottish Labour puppet branch manager has publicly stated that he will run a minority government after the 2026 election. Who does he think he is?

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His comment is disrespectful to the people of Scotland. Our future is at the moment in the toilet and waiting to get flushed away. We deserve better than all this claptrap. So, in the spirit of what George is saying, let me put forward my point of view. John Swinney should call an election due to the parlous state of our finances and announce that he will be standing down as leader of the SNP after it.

We need to get Mhairi Black and Stephen Flynn into Holyrood either by winning a seat or on the list. I does not matter how it is done, we just have to do it. I know Mhairi has said politics is not for her, but this is an emergency of the first order. I don’t know whether Stephen would go for this, but again, this is an emergency.

John should also make it clear that the election is a vote for independence. Never mind what anybody says, this is our chance. It has not taken long for the wheels to come off the Labour wagon. As George Kerevan says, this is a good time to do it. We need leaders who are going to give us some hope. We need leaders who are going to give us back our mojo.We need leaders who will put indy front and centre and tell Westminster we are doing it and eff the lot of them! So, there it is. I am of course ready to be shot down. But I ask you all this: if things do not get any better before 2026 then it won’t make a blind bit of difference, will it?

Old John
Ayrshire

I HAVE a simple question for Chancellor Reeves. If a pensioner has an income of just £1 above the limit to be eligible for Pension Credit etc, where do they find the other £299 to compensate for the loss of the Winter Fuel Payment? Somehow, I suspect that pensioner who risks developing hypothermia will not be her granny, though.

P Davidson
Falkirk

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RACHEL Reeves’s cut is too savage and displays a strange sense of priorities. On the other hand it involves no new means test and avoids plonking £300 into the bank accounts of wealthy old people who don’t need it and won’t alter their spending pattern one bit because of it. Maybe the Scottish Government could find a middle way and a better way. Unfortunately it has been given no warning and little time. That is the real complaint here – the ignoring of Scotland, the contempt for devolution.

Eric Clive
via thenational.scot

I REFER to George Rennie’s letter of August 19 (Electricity is owned by energy firms, not Scotland) in which he correctly states that the renewable energy produced from Scotland belongs to the electricity-generating companies because they have captured it. My question is, should it, just because the present UK set-up allows and encourages it?

Renewable energy (unlike oil and gas) is effectively everlasting. At present the benefits of this energy go to the companies, sometimes controlled from abroad, their shareholders and the UK Government coffers.

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Rain and wind have just driven me indoors from the garden for the third time today and I feel strongly that, being adversely affected by the elements, I should be entitled to at least some direct share in the benefits deriving from them. I would think that our farmers, fishermen, and those with outside jobs, among others like those with draughty homes, might feel similarly.

There appear to be various ways in which this could be fairly easily arranged, including the suggestions in Lesley Riddoch’s article of August 15, none of which however would be particularly palatable to the companies or the UK Government.

R Millar
Darvel

THE police investigate a “hate” crime at an Edinburgh venue where two people complain about a joke.

This is what happens when politically correct thinking gets out of hand, ends up in bad legislation and essentially denies us free speech.

The irony of this particular incident is that Humza Yousaf was a driver behind getting “hate crime” legislation on the books, yet an anti-war gag is taken exception to by two people and the police get involved.

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We have descended into a “he said, she said” farce where every word uttered has the potential to bring the police to your door if someone with an agenda takes it into their head to cause trouble. Pathetic and a complete waste of police time, given that Police Scotland have officially stated in my area that they will not be attending to “minor” crimes.

We can’t keep real criminals locked up but we can be assured of a police response if someone decides to be “offended”, and only because this spurious hate crime nonsense has been fomented by politicians.

Jim Butchart
via email