Scotland Matters Letters

WHAT Scotland desperately needs is a growing economy. What Scotland is actually getting is stagnation and almost inevitably recession. Economists know you cannot tax your population to the extent that work no longer pays. Shona Robison missed that bit (“Scottish Budget: Shona Robison and the ‘tax and axe’ Budget”, heraldscotland, December 19). If taxation is not reflected in better public services then there is neither incentive nor desire to contribute when, if needed, there is nothing to take back out. This is basic. The Greens obviously don’t understand this but it appears neither does the SNP. What happens next year when the extra taxation either doesn’t materialise or has little to no effect? Ms Robison is simply kicking the empty can a little further down the road. Is this progressive government in action? Dr Gerald Edwards, Glasgow.

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It is standard fare for Scottish nationalists, like Alex Orr (Letters, 19 December), to boast about how many more freebies we get in Scotland than in England. It doesn’t matter how often they are told 89 per cent of prescriptions in England are dispensed without charge, or how local authorities in Eng-land provide free bus travel for pensioners – and in Lon-don free Tube travel as well -they trot out the same myths. As for free university fees, these are for the limited number of Scottish students who are accepted into Scottish universities, where the majority of places are reserved for full fee-paying foreigners. The middle classes, who are most likely to be affected by the new tax band in Ms Robison’s budget, see their offspring discriminated against so that those from poorer backgrounds with lower entrance grades can be accommodated. Nationalists give the impression that English students pay fees. In fact, they repay the amount of their fees in instalments after they have graduated and are earning £27,295. They do not pay fees upfront. The scandal is that Scottish students who are excluded from Scottish universities because places are capped are not permitted to pay fees to obtain a place there. They go to England, or abroad, and probably do not return to work in Scotland. Another triumph for the Law of Unintended Consequences. Jill Stephenson, Edinburgh.

I AM shocked by the latest proposals (Mail) to close a further 29 police stations across the country, in addition to at least 140 already closed since the inception of Police Scotland. Are the hierarchy of this ill-conceived organisation determined to totally destroy the already fragile relationship that now exists between police and public? The busy former divisional office in Paisley – Scotland’s largest town, and in recent years a contender to be elevated to city status – is to go. This will mean no police station (other than a semi-operational office hidden in a back street in Renfrew) between Glasgow and Ayrshire. It is clear that force senior management has little clue of the strategic and operational importance of some of Scotland’s busiest police stations, such as Paisley Mill Street and the former Glasgow Central Divisional HQ at Stewart Street – unsurprising when you find that most of the force command team have no actual operational experience of policing the West of Scotland. I would wager the majority of them would be unable to find these important offices without satnav! I implore anyone who believes that accessible police stations are a vital part of our major towns’ infrastructure to lobby your elected representatives to oppose these clueless proposals. In the words of one of our largest cut-price supermarkets -‘when it’s gone, it’s gone’! Fred McManus, Paisley.

On the BBC Sunday Show Martin Geissler pointed out to Finance Minister Shona Robison that prescriptions cost NHS Scotland £1.5 billion, Seems like a plan to me. the same amount as the Allan Sutherland. looming budget shortfall. Stonehaven. He asked if it’s time to means-test prescriptions as they do in England. England’s population is 55m, Scotland’s is one-tenth of that, 5.4m. The English system costs £9.28bn, so Scotland’s would be around £900 million. That’s a saving of £600m off Ms Robison’s budget shortfall. Allan Sutherland.

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