Letters

NOW we know what happened. Margaret Thatcher’s time as Prime Minister ended in 1990 and she died in 2013. Yet John Swinney has blamed her for the mess in which Scotland now finds itself in 2024 (‘Swinney: Scotland is still suffering from Margaret Thatcher era’, June 27). It must have been the spirit of the Iron Lady that induced the ferries fiasco – perhaps by undue influence on the ministers who made the catastrophically wrong decisions.  She must also have forced the then First Minister to sign up to the Bifab disaster, and somehow prevent the A9 being dualled. Did she also exert spiritual pressure on SNP ministers to leave hundreds of millions of EU money allocated to Scotland unspent? Did she force fake embassies upon us at horrendous cost?  Whatever else she did, she is still eternally active and living in the minds of even the present SNP leaders. If the SNP get hammered on Thursday, will that be all her fault also?  Alexander McKay, Edinburgh.

A RECENT television item featured late-night bus travellers in Bolton discussing the poor state of the local cities and towns. Shuttered shops, bookmakers and small tearooms and, of course mobile phone dealers and former banks – now pubs serving food – are what we have in the towns and cities of today. I wonder if journalists dig deeply enough regarding the quality of life on mainland Europe compared to what is now the norm throughout the UK, the fifth richest country in the world. I would really like to watch more television programmes or read decent articles devoted to comparing the state of cities and towns in Europe to those in our troubled country. Brexit is a disaster but not the only reason for the decline in the UK’s cities. It may be a thorny issue that some politicians don’t want to talk about as we have left the European Union – and we are now, of course, our own masters, aren’t we? A great silence has descended in the UK over how we are in this run-down state compared to mainland Europe. Politicians have to find the answers. However journalists have a lot of power to pressurise politicians to listen to our concerns on the necessity for cities and towns to prosper. A few years ago I arrived at Buchanan Bus Station after a most enjoyable trip to Belgium and was appalled at the litter everywhere. In discussion with a fellow traveller we both agreed we live in the dirtiest city in Europe.  As I now live in Argyll I only drive past Glasgow city on the M8 so my home town may be much cleaner nowadays. Let’s hope so. James Nolan,  Strachur.

YOU know things are seriously bad when a leaders’ debate looks to be the better option as compared to watching Scotland at the Euros. However, the good news is that these debates have turned into comedy gold in terms of political satire. Indeed the one person I feel sorry for just now is Armando Iannucci, because the politicians are blatantly stealing his best plot-lines.

EVERY year for a week, unpaid carers receive a few column inches extolling the message that they are valued, followed by publicity of all the support they enjoy.

I KNOW that columnists are there to give opinions. Facts are secondary.  However. sometime truth needs facts (Neil Mackay, ‘I hate the bomb but to dump Trident now would be crazy’, June 25).

Do the 220 nuclear bombs on the Clyde keep us safe? No.

"Dear Scotsmen and women, I am writing to you from a small town near Düsseldorf"

THE Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) is to be applauded for tackling the elephant in the room in this general election campaign – namely, the stark choices that the key political parties will have to make in relation to the public finances if elected (‘Manifestos ignoring ‘toxic mix’ of fiscal challenges, says IFS’, June 25).

A discussion around fiscal duties is needed from political parties

AND, yet again, we cannot get the result we need to get out of our tournament group to reach the knock-out stages (‘Last-gasp heartache for Scotland’, June 24).