Letters: Tories should follow SNP lead in fighting cost of living crisis

We have an opposition in Westminster which can only come up with a timid measure which ultimately will only assist the better-off who can afford to stay afloat amidst this crisis. On this showing Labour simply doesn’t deserve to be in government. Mr Mackay notes that the powers of Holyrood to intervene are limited; yet the SNP has started weekly resilience meetings of the Cabinet in an effort to tackle the economic crisis, and will carry out an urgent review of the Scottish Budget.

The Scottish Government has urged the Tories to reinstate the £20 per week uplift to Universal Credit and calls for it to be extended to legacy benefits. It has also called for the UK Government to introduce a Child Payment in line with the Scottish Child Payment, recently doubled to £20 a week, assisting in excess of 100,000 children in Scotland. Further calls have/been made by the SNP for Westminster to introduce an energy price cap for small/medium enterprises in an effort to protect employment, along with a further call for support for the funding of public sector pay settlements.

Ian Blackford has called for Westminster to be recalled from recess in light of the economic crisis. Time is limited as we head into autumn then winter. We need serious action by all governments and we need it now if we are to avert a serious health crisis which will ultimately add more pressure to our NHS resources. The SNP has called for the devolved nations and Westminster leaders to get round the table and have the wellbeing and interest of all our future existence at the top of the agenda. It must be heeded.

Catriona C Clark, Falkirk.

• ANOTHER misleading statement from Ian Blackford, the SNP's noisy Westminster leader. He said on Monday that during the cost of living crisis the UK Tory Government has sat on its hands, claiming that unlike other countries our Government had done nothing to help. Not true.

All those on benefits will receive an additional £650 to help with the cost of living. Every household will receive £400 off energy bills in October. And pensioners will receive an extra £300 energy payment this winter. Furthermore, plans have been drawn up for further support when the new PM takes office in three weeks time.

William Loneskie, Lauder.

WESTMINSTER IS THE PROBLEM

RISHI Sunak and Liz Truss were scuttling to "north Britain" today and no doubt will quickly scuttle back as they won’t be welcomed. Why should they be? They’ve been an integral part of the gang of incompetents that have run the UK into the ground for the last 12 years.

Both Tory leader wannabees are threatening to bring Scotland to heel for purported governing failures. This is laughable. This is the same crew that brought us Brexit, cutting us off from our largest trading partner; that is presiding over the slowest economic growth in the G20 bar Russia; that has seen income and wealth inequality soar on its watch; that is standing idly by while its poorest citizens go bankrupt over obscenely high energy prices while Big Oil makes record profits; and that is forging ahead to serve up what remains of our public services and assets to corporations on a silver platter.

The problem for Scotland is that Westminster controls the UK’s economy, jacking up interest rates and choking off government investment. It controls energy policy, perversely ensuring that energy-rich Scotland suffers the most. It controls 85 per cent of social spending, tying the hands of the Scottish Government. And it controls trade policy, severing our ties to Europe, and defence policy, forcing its weapons of mass destruction on to Scottish soil.

Ms Truss and Mr Sunak say they want to "get the economy moving". The only way this will happen is when Scotland breaks free of this toxic Union and takes back control.

Leah Gunn Barrett, Edinburgh.

THE GAME IS UP

AS both Tory prime ministerial candidates turn their attention to closer scrutiny of the SNP's 15 years in power ("Truss and Sunak set out plans for more transparent Scotland ahead of hustings", The Herald, August 16) perhaps Nicola Sturgeon might just be expressing a little regret that she was so scathing about the Tories and Boris Johnson in particular. The SNP has managed to stay in office only by deflecting criticism of almost all of its policies and their outcomes. A closer investigation of just how the devolved administration has handled affairs might not make pleasant reading for either the SNP or Scottish voters.

The game is up for the SNP when all it can come up with is that Westminster is the best recruiting sergeant for independence. Frequent polls showed this never really worked even under Boris Johnson, did it?

Dr Gerald Edwards, Glasgow.

WORK FOR A BETTER FUTURE

I AGREE with Martin Brennan’s description (Letters, August 15) of the immense amount of good done by the Blair and Brown governments of 1997-2010. I also agree with John Milne (Letters, August 16) in his praise of Gordon Brown for the crucial role he played in the global response to the banking crisis of 2008. However, there are a couple of areas where Labour in government was sorely wanting, and those have come back to bite us: energy and housing.

Our housing stock is in poor condition and public sector housing has never recovered from Maggie Thatcher’s blitz on it. Funnily enough, it was Conservative governments in the 1950s which did more for public housing than any other, and it’s a pity that Labour didn’t emulate them when it had the opportunity.

Labour should also have begun the process of building new nuclear power stations; they might have been coming on stream by now. The case for nuclear is obvious: it doesn’t contribute to climate change, and a vast amount of power is produced by a very small plant.

I argued for investment in both public housing and nuclear while I was active in Labour, but what did I know? I trained as a scientist, then travelled the world as a pilot and saw what other nations were doing. It was clear then, as now, that the UK is falling behind, and all that seems to be in doubt is the rate at which we decline. Boris Johnson and his acolytes keep going on about being world-beating, but the only area where we unquestionably lead the world is in nostalgia.

For all the good that Labour did in power, there’s been a Tory Government at Westminster for over a decade now, dismantling its legacy. It is faced by a Tory-lite opposition that dare not challenge the entrenched inequalities and injustices that run through British society. Time to change, surely; time to try something new; time to work towards a better future rather than look back with rose-tinted glasses to our past; time to get independence done.

Doug Maughan, Dunblane.

GHOSTS OF IRAQ HAUNT LABOUR

JOHN Milne considers that we are fortunate to have someone with "the experience, intellect, drive and compassion of Gordon Brown offering Sir Keir Starmer advice". What a pity Mr Brown didn't utilise those excellent qualities to advise Sir Tony Blair, when he was plain old Mr Blair, not to take the UK into an illegal war. If only Chancellor Brown had kept a lock on the Treasury door, and stood shoulder to shoulder with the principled Robin Cook when he resigned from the Government because of that war, Mr Blair, shorn of his Chancellor's support, would have found it very difficult to proceed with his war plans, and British bombs might not have rained down on Iraq, and British soldiers might not have returned home in Union Flag-draped coffins.

Most of the blame for that war has been attributed to Mr Blair, who has yet to appear in a court of law, or even to be expelled from the Labour Party; indeed, his only "punishment" seems to have been the granting of a knighthood. Mr Brown's input to one of the UK's worst foreign policy disasters has tended to have been glossed over; but next year will mark the 20th anniversary of the Iraq war, and with the undoubted analysis there will be of the UK's involvement in that war, it may be that Mr Brown's part in the disaster will receive more prominence.

At any rate, it won't be a good look for the Labour Party, and if he has any sense, Sir Keir Starmer won't be seeking advice from Mr Brown any time soon. The ghosts of all who needlessly died in the illegal, immoral and indefensible Iraq war will continue to haunt the Labour Party for a very long time to come.

Ruth Marr, Stirling.

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