ON Monday evening on the late STV news, the new Tory leader Russell Findlay was interviewed and asked about his tax plans for Scots if he were ever in a position to administer them. He was all for cutting taxation but he could not give any specifics about which services would be cut if taxation was reduced.

He did say, however, that he would stop the pockets of poor working people from being picked. Having your pocket picked is theft, so by using this language he is saying that the Scottish Government are illegally taking money from people. This is the most negative spin on taxation and should be called out for being the mad statement it is.

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Tax “burden” is another negative statement used to describe individuals’ contribution. Taxation within democracies is the main altruistic method of redistributing wealth within society. It should therefore be presented as a progressive and positive process, with those most able to contribute more being privileged by their position to be able to do so.

A positive campaign should be followed by all of us who support this most human of measure of helping those who are less fortunate than ourselves and who need our support.

Campbell Anderson
Edinburgh

INDIVIDUAL policies are debated as if only their individual financial costs matter, but taken together as national values show that good health (free prescriptions, NHS treatment), baby boxes, childcare and free education all benefit the state and citizens in a wellbeing economy.

The debates on, for example, means-testing winter payments to pensioners and free prescriptions in Scotland as separate policies is an attempt to focus on costs instead of national benefits and the social contract between every government and its people. The very wealthy can add value via our progressive taxation system. Every owner of a business – large, medium or small – knows how much a healthy, educated workforce is crucial to success.

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The SNP have carefully, over 14 years, built the Scottish systems now in place. The opposition parties want to dismantle them bit by bit, until we’re no longer a Scottish society with our own traditions and values but a small voice in the Anglostate where money is king and business demands outweigh society’s needs. Choose wisely, choose independence.

Anne Meikle
Edinburgh

SNP MP Kirsty Blackman is reported in The National as saying that “Scotland deserves better than another austerity-driven Westminster government”.

No they don’t, Ms Blackman, that is exactly what they deserve because that is what they voted for and you will never be an effective spokesperson for the Scottish people until you accept that.

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The decision-makers in the SNP, like Ms Blackman, need to come to terms with reality before they can offer any kind of meaningful solutions to the fact that austerity-driven Westminster governments are what Scotland apparently wants because that is what they keep voting for.

But that is not the only flight from Ms Blackman’s sense of reality. The poll she was referring to was a UK-wide poll conducted by The Observer, so Ms Blackman has, in reality, not a clue how the Scots view Starmer, her statement was pure propaganda, it is wishful thinking and is not at all helpful to the cause of independence as reality exposes it for what it is.

What the SNP need to do is keep their mouths shut until the effects of Scotland’s voting consequences mature and they have evidential ammunition of the damage their votes have caused, to hammer home a relentless messaging campaign highlighting the results of voting for Westminster parties.

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The Scots will need to suffer, that is an unfortunate reality, and the independence movement must be unswerving in forcing them to realise why they are suffering. The consequences of Brexit are slowly dawning on the English electorate, not because of propaganda, but because of a lived experience, they are suffering the consequences of their own stupidity and that is unfortunately what will need to be experienced in Scotland.

Instead of platitudes, I suggest Ms Blackman and her colleagues give concrete examples of how Scottish voting patterns are impacting on them and pursue such a strategy relentlessly. This “Oh pity us poor Scots” rubbish is untethered to reality and the opposite of what the Scottish people need to be told, repeatedly. Unionist voters need to be shamed and held accountable for their votes. They need to be told, “you did this to yourselves and deserve all you get”. Pandering to their sensibilities has never, and will never, work.

We Scots need to stop feeling sorry for ourselves and lay the blame firmly at our own door. We can respect those who disagree with us, but we must not respect their delusions and lies.

Peter Kerr
Kilmarnock

HAVING had a recent General Election and a consequent change of government, I had foolishly hoped that Westminster life might have become more acceptable to those of us ordinary mortals living outwith the circles of power. What a disappointment. Just because gifts are entered in the required parliamentary register does not make it honourable to accept them.

What price the comments about “service” trotted out by the Prime Minister when pleading for support from the electorate? One of the sayings that I learnt at an early age was “You must cut your coat according to your cloth”. If he does not understand this, Mr Starmer’s education has been sadly lacking, despite his current status and salary.

I await the next instalment of the Westminster soap opera with flagging interest.

Monica Wells
Deskford, Moray