Readers' Letters: Swinney is spreading disinformation about pensions

John Swinney continues to mislead people by his assertion that pensioners in Scotland are paying the price of improving national care in England because of the changes proposed by Andy Burnham to the triple lock.

It simply is not true, because the Barnett formula will ensure Scotland not only gets its share of the “benefit” of the lower payments but, because of the formula’s generosity, will actually get more money from the UK Treasury than is saved by the triple lock changes in Scotland.

It will be up to the SNP to do what it wishes with that money. It could spend it on pointless gestures like schoolbags, or waste it on investments that make a loss, or even do as was done with the Winter Fuel Allowance and make special payments to Scottish pensioners (noting that Swinney didn’t reinstate payments to all pensioners, but replicated what was done in England).

John Swinney speaks during First Minister's Questions at Scottish Parliament Building last week (Picture: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

However, making a special payment using the money transferred as a result of the Barnett formula would not allow the First Minister to continue with his grievance politics.

Rule 16 of the SNP’s code of conduct states that members of the SNP are expected not to knowingly redistribute disinformation on matters of public importance in digital, print or media form. “Disinformation” is defined as deliberately misleading, biased or altogether false information, knowingly shared to distort and manipulate public debate and/or to discredit democratic institutions and processes.

In stating that Scottish pensioners will be paying for the English National Care Service, I suspect he would be found guilty as charged.

Brian Barbour, Haddington, East Lothian

Protect women

Susan Dalgety (“AI and tech firms drive ‘epidemic’ of sexual violence against women”, Perspective, 3 October) rightly calls out politicians who carelessly argue that prostitution is “meaningful and fulfilling work”. For many years both the Scottish government and Cosla have adopted a policy that recognises prostitution as violence against women and girls, and yet the men who commit this violence remain free of robust legal constraint. Websites also continue to “advertise” the bodies of women in Scotland in plain sight.

It is vital that the MSPs newly elected in May continue the sterling and brave work of their predecessors, such as Rhoda Grant and Ruth Maguire, and use their positions of privilege to advocate for the exploited and very often trafficked women and girls whose bodies are sold for the gratification of men.

The Scottish government’s recent formation of an Independent Commission on the Criminalisation of the Purchase of Sex is a hugely welcome first step, but it would be a genuine tragedy if yet another parliamentary session were to pass without legislative change to protect some of the most vulnerable women in Scotland.

Michael Veitch, Scotland Policy Officer, CARE London

Maternity mess

SNP health minister Angela Constance somehow seems surprised (“500 serious maternity incidents in three years”, 2 October). If she was up to her brief, she should have known. The SNP has had power over the Scottish NHS for 20 years, yet an essential service like maternity care is still not functioning properly.

We keep being told by the SNP that our population is falling, so surely this service takes on an even more important role. Ms Constance says she is “deeply concerned” and this is unacceptable, but she shies away from admitting SNP mismanagement of the NHS is responsible, even in part.

Is this not exactly what is wrong in Scotland? Our SNP government likes to talk the talk but is not walking the walk, it is limping badly. It should really see a doctor about this but there is a long waiting list. Sums it all up,doesn't it.

Gerald Edwards, Glasgow

Lack of interest

In the Wick and Caithness council by election last week the SNP candidate got 424 votes out of 3,022 cast. That’s about 14 per cent. The Lib Dems won with 1,500 votes. There are around ten thousand registered voters in the ward, which means only 4 per cent of them – one in every 25 – could be bothered to go out and vote for the party whose leader, John Swinney, equates the desire for “the right to choose” with a populace desperate for independence.

I will be interested to see how the SNP fare in Thursday's Aberdeen City Midstocket and Rosemount council by-election. They got 27 per cent of the vote in the 2022 Council elections.

Allan Sutherland, Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire

A bit much

Rachael Bews, a mother-of-three, is petitioning for a change in the law so breastfeeding parents can have paid time off work to feed their babies or express milk (your report, 3 October).

She says this is “not asking for special treatment”. Oh yes it is. Her petition has been lodged with the UK Parliament. Women have fought for long enough for well-deserved equality, but never special treatment.

Women are quite rightly entitled to maternity leave, which in the UK lasts for up to 52 weeks which is divided into 26 weeks Ordinary and 26 Additional. The first six weeks of maternity pay is based on 90 per cent of her average weekly wage, followed by 33 weeks at the statutory rate (the final 13 weeks of leave are unpaid).

With three children, Ms Bews has already done very well with taxpayers' money.

Quite rightly a UK government spokesman said the government “have no plans to introduce paid breastfeeding time”.

Rachael Bews has already received taxpayer statutory maternity pay for her three children and now she wants us to pay for breastfeeding parents – note “parents”, not mothers.

Clark Cross, Linlithgow, West Lothian

Let us judge

In light of the UK government’s U-turn on plans to curb jury trials, adequate locations will be required to accommodate increased numbers of legal participants.

Would redundant churches be suitable, with existing facilities including pulpits, bench seating, acoustics, lighting, toilets and refreshment sources? An agreed rent for the premises would be of benefit to downsizing churches.

Iain Wright, Edinburgh

Canute rules

How have the energy giants managed to dominate our politics so completely? One word: Fear

We are told that unless we obey the big corporations, pay more tax and more for our energy, the world will boil. These companies sit on committees, advise governments, and shape consultations – all with one aim, to boost profits at the public’s expense. They do not care about the environment or communities forced to live beside their developments. Anything goes to increase their bottom line.

Whether you believe the climate is changing or not, nothing the UK does alone will alter its trajectory. Yet we are trashing the natural world for so‑called “clean” energy instead of producing it reliably, affordably and as cleanly as possible, while tackling issues like microplastics.

Politicians shout about “climate emergency” without admitting the obvious: unless the entire world cripples its economy the way we are doing, nothing will change. And even then, would it? Meanwhile they drag us down this ruinous path while enjoying lucrative salaries and having their ears bent by the very industry causing the damage.

Public money pours into corporate coffers to produce an unreliable product, so the need to be competitive on an open market vanishes. They tell us Scotland and the UK can be “world leaders” and that other nations will follow our “clean” example. Will they really say: “The UK is doing a great job impoverishing their own citizens while ripping up their environment for the profit of ruthless global investment companies – let’s copy that!”

The lunacy isn’t ours alone – but why do we have the highest energy bills? Maybe it’s the guaranteed payments to unreliable, weather‑dependent generators. Maybe the reckless over‑deployment of wind turbines in remote regions far from the point of need is driving up costs. Maybe the lack of grid capacity out of Scotland or guaranteed customers has created a new subsidy – constraints – where generators are paid handsomely to produce nothing at all. What political “genius” thought that one up?

People have been indoctrinated, increasingly from an early age, into believing their own money must be handed over to corporations “to save the planet”. The very corporations that are destroying it.

Our politicians are shamefully complicit. The Green Party is now ironically demanding a moratorium on data centres – probably to be fed by wind energy (when it blows) – while continuing to ignore rural communities begging for their help to stop the mass rollout of gargantuan turbines that devastate landscapes, wildlife and lives.

Every time the same parties are voted in, they believe they are invincible – that we back their insanity – and that they have a mandate to continue. The arrogance in Holyrood and Westminster is breathtaking: corporate puppets dancing to whatever tune Big Green plays, insisting we can reverse global climate patterns. King Canute comes to mind.

Lyndsey Ward, Communities B4 Power Companies, Darach Brae, Inverness-shire

Not so great

I was not surprised Scotland had the welcome victory over North Macedonia. They’ve done nothing since Alexander The Great's day in 323BC!

John V Lloyd, Inverkeithing, Fife

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