What is happening with our transport system?? First, we have two new ferries being delayed for five years, while those that are in operation are continually breaking down and needing repairs. We have bus services being cancelled as we are short of bus drivers and, now, we have rail services being reduced by 33 per cent for several reasons. Where has the forward planning been by the Scottish Government? They’ve taken their eye off the ball. We’re coming into the tourist season and it’s a shambles and they want us to vote for independence. George Walkingshaw, Glenrothes
We’re missing the point on Nicola Sturgeon’s retraction from her “Closing the attainment gap” aim. She has realised that being poorly educated and thoughtless is a major attribute to fortifying the numbers of her followers. So perhaps her next promise will be to close all private schools, so increasing the chances to achieve a zero attainment gap at a mediocre level, providing more fodder for the Indyref2 machine. Stan Hogarth, Strathaven, South Lanarkshire.
Stan Grodynski criticises my contributions to your letter’s pages listing “perceived failures” by this incompetent SNP administration is almost laughable if it was not so serious (Letters. 23 May). As with most independence supporters, he asks those against independence in effect, not to criticise but instead compare the”relative performance” of the UK government and governments elsewhere as against this hapless SNP Government. Like his esteemed First Minister, he trots out the usual “lessons can be learned from mistakes made” line. He singularly fails to comment on the astronomical costs of these “mistakes” which, should they have been made in the private sector, would have resulted in people losing their jobs. As regards comparing the performance to the UK government, it will be of no relevance to those passengers trying to get a train from Glasgow to Dundee after 7 pm or from Glasgow to Stirling after 8 pm. It will be of no relevance for our hospitality sector to look elsewhere in the UK when they have no customers after 8 pm in Scotland! The plain truth is that we in Scotland. via this SNP administration, must put our own house in order. Only then will comparisons with other parts of the UK have any relevance whatsoever. Richard Allison.
In a recent paper by a respected academic at the University of St Andrews, the SNP-backed Scottish National Investment Bank was stated to be ‘unfocused and ill-conceived’. How many times have we heard this kind of criticism? Truthfully, with just about every project in which the SNP has been involved. Is there anything, anything at all, the SNP can get right? Alexander McKay, Edinburgh.