IT is shallow politics to stand up week after week at First Minister’s Questions and criticise the performance of the Scottish NHS by highlighting one or two examples of the relatively few occasions where things have gone wrong out of the hundreds of thousands of personal interactions with this incredible service every single day.
It is disingenuous for Anas Sarwar to make such repeated criticisms without proposing specifically how the service can be improved or from where substantial additional funds can be taken given that Scotland already has the best-funded NHS with the highest paid staff and highest staff-patient ratio in the UK. It is also deceitful to make sweeping claims of incompetence and to mislead the public by implying that relatively minor savings elsewhere in the Scottish budget could release significantly more funds for the NHS while the largest cost of recent Scottish Government decisions has been pay settlements demanded by public-service unions.
READ MORE: Keir Starmer panned for 'we have to be unpopular' claim
Not on a single occasion did I hear Anas Sarwar criticise any of these settlements, so it’s grossly hypocritical to imply that should the Scottish public have been duped into electing a Labour Scottish Government, it (with extremely limited borrowing powers) would have avoided Holyrood’s current economic predicament.
This deliberate silence though raises the question of whether Mr Sarwar is scurrilously working with the unions on behalf of Sir Keir Starmer to further diminish the powers of the Scottish Parliament.
READ MORE: Government deserves criticism but so too does Scottish Labour
During the Smith Commission negotiations, in spite of prior claims of wishing more powers, the Labour Party generally argued against increasing the powers of the Scottish Parliament, and on coming into government at Westminster, instead of abolishing the Tory-introduced UK Internal Market Act Labour now look set to exploit it further by handing the “Scottish Office” more funds to bypass the elected representatives of the Scottish people.
The fact that the decision by the London-centric Labour UK Government to deny the Winter Fuel Payment to hundreds of thousands of pensioners was not even discussed with the Scottish Government indicates that in spite of boasts of honesty, inter-government co-operation and transparency, the Labour Party, aided and abetted by the party’s sleekit puppet in Scotland, is deviously intent on neutering the Scottish people’s parliament.
Beware the smooth-talking unscrupulous salesman!
Stan Grodynski
Longniddry, East Lothian
THE embattled SNP, currently wondering how to get a budget passed, have a lifeline. As Shona Robison knows full well, having been convenor of the Social Justice and Fairness Commission whose 2021 report strongly favoured land value taxation (LVT), the Scottish Government could introduce it to provide a basic income, at a rate sufficient to finance the legal minimum living-space.
This would effectively end homelessness and the very substantial costs associated with it. Plus it could get the Greens back on board to pass said budget.
READ MORE: Four things the SNP could do instead of cut £500m from public services
A cadastral survey, as recommended by the Scottish Land Commission in January 2022, could be easily and cheaply carried out. It’s high time the Scottish Government (a) extracted the digit, (b) commissioned one ASAP, and (c) told the electorate what the purpose is. We are entitled to know, to the last square inch, who owns our country and trousers our land values.
And if the SNP should prove unwilling to move towards tapping community-created land values before the 2026 election, I can think of another party that would be dumb not to have it in its manifesto.
George Morton
via email
RICHARD Walker is correct when he highlights the need for the SNP Scottish Government to govern while the Yes movement gets on with building the momentum for independence (Now, more than ever, SNP must separate their governing role and the pursuit of indy, Sep 6) .
However, I frequently find it frustrating that column inches are given over to mumping, grumping and constant moaning. Journalists, guest columnists and contributors alike – Roz Foyer’s latest offering includes a dreadful comment about the SNP’s “droopy mantra of ‘it wisnae me’.”
This got me wondering what part of “balancing a fixed budget” Roz doesn’t get. Or is it just another columnist keeping a foot in both camps – today I am pro-independence, tomorrow: maybes aye, maybes naw!
READ MORE: 'Hard to imagine' who will support SNP Budget, says Lorna Slater
Our country needs us to consistently step up now, but where is our Scottish Che Guevara or our Gandhi? Who can lead, us in tandem with the SNP Scottish Government, to our independence?
Independence is not going to happen any time soon under this Red Tory Westminster regime.
We all need to think out the box. My outrageous tuppence worth is: what if we didn’t balance the budget?
What if we:
1. Restored winter fuel payments
2. Introduced a well being pension
3. Reinstated free school meals for all
4. Settled pay disputes fairly
5. Reduced energy bills
6. Stopped paying the massive Labour-induced PPI debt/payments ... and so much more!
What would London do? Put us under Westminster/London rule then take away all those new benefits, thus antagonising a whole nation? Or would this challenge them to engage in discussion about our path to independence?
I ask all contributors to please bring ideas and solutions to the table. Our future depends on us using our voice, otherwise it’s more of the same “Scotland – get to the back of the bus”.
Jan Ferrie
Ayrshire (70)
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