Readers' Letters: All SNP successfully delivers for Scotland is Groundhog Day

Another day, another SNP broken promise. A key policy from the SNP, which is trotted out at every opportunity, is its boast of free university tuition.

Like much of the SNP's recent Holyrood election “vote for us” campaign this one was front and centre and is already looking to be not quite what was promised (“Universities facing ‘acute and growing’ funding crisis”, 28 August).

The litany of half-baked ideas from the SNP is fast becoming its real slogan. It isn't “Stronger for Scotland”, it is “Failing for Scotland”. What is really reprehensible is that it is being elected time and again on false promises.

Glasgow University

The opposition is not helping as no one else appears to have popular policies that might just work. Scotland is doomed to be in an SNP Groundhog Day. No SNP politician ever accepts responsibility for these ongoing failures. No wonder nothing works in Scotland.

Gerald Edwards, Glasgow

Safeguard jobs

The SNP complains to the UK government about high energy prices, repeating the myth that Scotland is energy rich. Well, we would be if the same SNP supported extracting gas from the North Sea, and perhaps even supported the extraction of oil – both of which would bring jobs, or at least safeguard jobs in Aberdeen.

The UK Department of Energy argues that extracting oil would not reduce the price of oil as the price is set on international markets. This false mantra is repeated ad nauseam, seemingly on the basis that if you say it often enough, it will become fact, despite being nonsense. As anyone with a basic knowledge of economics knows – something which seems lacking in both governments – if you increase supply, the price falls, so by adding oil from the North Sea to the international markets – everything else being equal – the price of oil would indeed fall, or at least, not rise as much.

The desire for net-zero is something most of us agree on, but given that the UK is responsible for only 1 per cent of global emissions, and we have done so much already, we should be progressing not with zeal, but at a pace that allows transition without hammering businesses and the wider population with high energy costs. There is no point in washing our halos while exporting jobs to China, along with the tax revenue that would otherwise arrive from extracting our own resources close to home.

That is especially true of gas where we could, by the end of October this year, be using North Sea gas instead of importing Liquified Natural Gas from Qatar or the USA on tankers that are some of the worst emitters of greenhouse gas emissions, giving us energy security in the face of world instability.

Let’s get real. Extract from the North Sea while we transition to net zero, and as we are at it, break the artificial link between electricity prices and the price of gas. When solar and wind can produce cheaper electricity, why we do we burden business and the public with high energy costs? This destroys jobs and loses tax revenue. Madness. Let’s hope the new Prime Minister listens to logic and not zealots. A hae ma doots !

Brian Barbour, Haddington, East Lothian

Cut VAT on gas

According to the UK government and the regulator Ofgem, the 4 per cent, or £60 per year, increase in the October energy price cap is caused by higher wholesale gas prices.

As the weather gets colder demand increases but the main driver of the 8 per cent gas price increase is the supply shock from the Strait of Hormuz. A £105 increase in energy costs would have occured if the government had not cut VAT on electricity for six months. If it had also cut VAT to zero on gas then the October increase would have been negligible.

The cheapest fixed deal today is about 10 per cent less than the October cap. Consumer champion Martin Lewis suggests using a comparison site to get the best fixed deal. This all depends on attitude to risk, as Lewis concedes, given that the Middle East crisis may improve, bringing down prices.

I started using fixed rates three years ago and have saved hundreds of pounds by fixing in June or July when the wholesale gas prices is generally lower. Fixing now would mean the highest rate for around three years due to Donald Trump’s gamble with Iran. Lewis accepts the market volatility caused by this and caveats his suggestion.

It’s clear we all will have to pay more for the rising debt of £6 billion in 30-day energy bill arrears, currently equating to £50 per year. Cutting VAT on escalating gas prices in the short term and reducing reliance for gas in the long term would be in everyone’s interest.

Neil Anderson, Edinburgh

Blown away

One thing immediately caught my attention in the article from Alistair Carmichael, “Give communities a voice or risk killing net zero progress” (Perspective, 28 August).

It was the statement that "energy giant SSE was paid £9 million last year not to generate electricity". Readers of a nervous disposition should look away now.

Constraint payments, which are added to our electricity bills, are escalating way past the £2.2 billion mark. Why should wind turbine owners, mostly foreign, get this payment?

What idiotic Civil Service person agreed to this? You do not pay a shopkeeper not to supply you with goods. All-new proposed wind turbine developments, and unfortunately they will continue, should ensure there are no constraint payments. That would take the wind out of their sails.

Clark Cross, Linlithgow, West Lothian

Net dogmatism

It is revealing that the Lib Dem MP for Orkney and Shetland views local opposition to renewable energy infrastructure not through the lens of local democracy, but through anxiety for his beloved net zero project.

Alistair Carmichael asks whether net zero goals can be realised when relying on corporate energy giants that practice “old-fashioned corporate greed” while preaching social responsibility. He is right that promises of “community benefit” now trigger nothing but weary sighs from local people.

However, the MP should look at the bigger picture. Rather than blaming corporate structures, he ought to ponder whether the headlong rush to net zero is the unmitigated good he assumes it to be. The realities of this policy are soaring energy bills, localised environmental damage, a reliance on unpredictable power sources and a staggering financial burden on taxpayers.

Instead of dismissing public scepticism, he and his like-minded colleagues should ask themselves if opposition to net zero is truly irrational – or if the real irrationality lies in their own unwavering dogmatism.

Aileen Jackson, Scotland Against Spin, Uplawmoor, East Renfrewshire

Reform justice

The Scotsman editorial on the justice system read as if lifted from a red top tabloid and the attack on the SNP was also too party political for a quality newspaper (26 August).The issues facing the justice system are systemic and cultural. For decades Scotland has incarcerated a bigger percentage of its population than almost any country in Europe. The number is significantly higher even than England, which is also near the top of the table.

Why is this? In part it’s because it’s an easy subject for tabloid hysteria. This has made it very difficult for politicians to rethink the justice system in the way, for example, Finland has. Lesley Riddoch touched on this in her recent film which toured Scotland to packed cinemas. Perhaps your leader writers could watch it?

The editorial seemed to be calling for every person accused of domestic violence in Scotland to be held in prison – are you really sure that is warranted? You say you are concerned about safety – solutions such as tagging and geo-monitoring may actually be safer for the victim.

Jackie Kemp, Leith, Edinburgh

Flexible NHS

Further to The Scotsman’s front page article of 27 August (“Rapid rollout of GP walk-in clinics ‘risks worse crisis’ ”), there appears to be more than a little hypocrisy around criticism by bodies representing GPs of the Scottish government’s new walk-in clinics. Even before these were initially launched, BMA representatives were criticising the proposed introduction without any admission that major changes in NHS GP working conditions over recent decades have significantly contributed to the current difficulties confronting the general public.

Gone are the out-of-hours service and home visits previously enjoyed across the UK, to be replaced by the weekday early morning phone rush for appointments and long queues at hospital A&E departments.

Contrary to the wishes of much of the general public (including now Prime Minister Andy Burnham), NHS England has reduced its walk-in service provision despite many people continuing to experience difficulties in accessing current GP services for a variety of reasons, including work commitments.

In fact some doctors and other medical staff with restrictive obligations prefer more flexible working arrangements than currently accommodated within the established NHS GP structure.

Therefore, it seems logical for NHS Scotland to at least attempt to bridge the health service access gap, and perhaps once established across a representative number of centres (and gaining comprehensive feedback) tailor a version of the service that efficiently provides better overall health/medical cover for the Scottish public. A more flexible NHS may also help more of our trained young doctors to continue to work in Scotland.

Stan Grodynski, Longniddry, East Lothian

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