I SEE the current leader of the Scottish Lib-UnDems is at it again. He’ll support the SNP Scottish Government’s budget as long as not a single penny is spent on the constitution or independence. Despite the fact that the SNP clearly won the last Scottish Parliament election and was able to form a government – surely Alex Cole-Hamilton isn’t now telling all those who voted for the SNP that he does not respect their votes or wishes?
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He alone – OK, with maybe a handful of others – wants to dictate terms to the Scottish Government to drop their one key policy which unites the party. This is just another example of the LibDems disrespecting the voters – they did the same in 2010 when their former leader claimed the LibDems wouldn’t increase student fees, and look at the state of student fees in England (and Wales) now!
Why would anyone in their right mind vote for a political party that clearly ignores voters’ wishes?
Cllr Kenny MacLaren
Paisley
THE headline in Monday’s letter’s pages was “SNP must not shelve their core mission to pass Budget”. While going on to read and agree with the basic contents of the letter in question, I would point out to its author, Dr Jensen, that some in the SNP leadership gave up on the core mission a long time ago. It is hard to put an exact date on the event, or sequence of events, but somewhere in the year after the disappointment of the 2014 referendum the new leadership, and leader, of the SNP began a subtle process of sowing a seed which has led us to today’s political harvest.
In April 2015 Nicola Sturgeon, speaking on ITV, said: “The election on May 7 is not about independence. If you vote for the SNP you are not voting for independence, you are not even voting for another independence referendum.” Despite this statement the SNP went on to win large numbers of Westminster seats in 2015, 2017 and 2019. However, in May 2024 reality finally caught up with rhetoric.
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The fact is that a large group of SNP MPs had spent many years with their bottoms firmly parked on the green benches of the House of Commons making speeches of varying quality while back home much of the public had lost patience and trust in them.
A sad mixture of inaction on independence and a perceived incompetence in government at Holyrood has led to the current situation with only nine SNP MPs remaining at Westminster and the real prospect of further electoral decline coming in May 2026. Labour gained 36 seats. The SNP lost half a million votes, their share falling 15 percentage points to 30%.
Almost exactly 10 years ago, in November 2014, more than 14,000 people crammed into the Glasgow Hydro in the biggest political rally Scotland had ever seen. In October 2015 some 3500 delegates attended the SNP conference, along with almost 1000 observers, exhibitors and journalists.
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Contrast all that with the late evening of July 4 this year when Nicola Sturgeon, leader of the SNP for nine years and in government for 16 years, sat in a television studio now as a commentator on her own party’s decline. Despite still being a SNP MSP she talked about the SNP as “they” rather than “we”.
The current SNP leadership have less than 18 months to turn this situation around. The real question is, do they have the time, the ability, the financial resources, or even the inclination to do so?
Dr Iain Evans
Edinburgh
WITH the Scottish Budget only a matter of days away, what are the cries and demands of Scotland’s opposition party leaders?
Anas Sarwar MSP and Scottish Labour are calling for the Winter Fuel Payment to be reinstated in Scotland by bringing forth amendments to the Social Security (Amendment) Bill at Holyrood. Conservative Leader Russell Findlay MSP is calling for 100% rates relief for the hospitality sector.
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All very credible calls, however, where is the money to meet those calls coming from? Scotland has no borrowing powers, Scotland needs to balance the books, Scotland’s budget settlement has been reduced in real terms by 1.2% since 2022-23 and the impact on Scotland’s finances by just one manifesto broken promise by the UK’s Labour government has seen in excess of £500 million being added to our public service expenditure. Of course I speak of the increase to employer’s National Insurance contributions. Scotland’s largest public-sector employer is our NHS and the impact of those increases will be felt far and wide. For opposition leaders in Scotland, their real call should be to their party leaders in Westminster, those making decisions impacting detrimentally on Scotland’s finances.
Catriona C Clark
Falkirk
SO, the UK Government wants to get people working rather than being inactive economically and claiming benefits. Here we go again, it makes a nice headline and gives the impression of them tackling a “something for nothing” culture.
The last time something like this happened, many with disabilities were harassed by having “reviews” of their fitness or lack of it. When are they going to look at tax evasion and tighten loopholes? Go for little people and leave the big guys alone seems to be the policy.
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It would be better if the benefits system was more accessible to those who aren’t Philadelphia lawyers. My experience many years ago when unemployed was that the system was designed not to be easily understood by those in need. Difficulties in finding what you were supposedly entitled to abounded.
A simplified, more transparent system would be better than hounding those it considers economically inactive. The current complexity makes errors more likely and may encourage fraud by the few whose can fathom it.
Drew Reid
Falkirk
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