Letters: Sunak has framed a realistic agenda on key issues

I just hope that Mr Starmer picks up the baton, has more luck and runs even faster.

Paradoxically, I’ll be doing my bit by voting Conservative because they are best placed to beat the SNP in my Aberdeenshire constituency and remove the threat of SNP independence from Starmer’s to-do list.
Allan Sutherland, Stonehaven.

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Read more:

General Election: Who will things get better for?

General Election is the moment to remove the Tories, says John Swinney

General Election: Rishi Sunak calls snap vote for July 4

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Divine intervention outside No 10
“I WILL sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols”, is a famous Bible passage. 

The first vote was possibly cast within seconds of Rishi Sunak publicly announcing a 2024 general election. Rishi went off like drowned rat after the heavens opened. Has a divine hand already voted in wet fury against the sleaze of the Tories and their cynical ill-treatment of ordinary British citizens? 
James Hardy, Belfast. 

The evil of two lessers?
SO a July general election has been announced. Millions of people will wake up and vote for those who promise them the most free stuff. Then they’ll go back to sleep.

Politicians will vote in bills which will be Orwellian against the common people but they’ll exempt themselves. They’ll take money from people whom they hold in contempt and give it to their supporters.

Will we end up with the lesser of two evils or the evil of two lessers?
Geoff Moore, Alness.

Time for a reset on both sides of border
JOHN Swinney quickly set the tone of the SNP’s approach to the coming general election.

The divisive plan to breakup the UK will be at the heart of it – line one, page one of the SNP manifesto – in a campaign that will seek to convince Scotland that, after 17 years of SNP Scottish Government, it is still everyone else who is to blame for all the big issues we face. 

From NHS waiting lists to the attainment gap in education, from drug deaths to the ferries crisis, from botched and misguided attempts at new legislation to assorted scandals involving senior figures in the SNP, the SNP has failed Scotland time and again. 

Yet Mr Swinney wants us to ignore all that and to focus instead on what everyone else should have done better.

Scotland at last has a meaningful opportunity to begin the process of putting in place governments in Westminster, and hopefully in due course Holyrood, prepared to work together for us all. 

At the same time the SNP can hopefully be shown in no uncertain terms that the public will no longer fall for the con-trick that so often in past elections has rewarded dogma and incompetence with power. 
Keith Howell, West Linton.

Chance for Scots to come together
WHAT a disappointment to hear  John Swinney’s first words in reaction to the general election announcement. He welcomed it as an opportunity for the people of Scotland to get rid of a Tory government. 

Surely he understands that our neighbours south of the border are likely to bring that about, with no need to rely on Scottish voters. 

The problem will be that they will lumber us with another Tory government, led this time by Keir Starmer, but offering no change to major policy issues including EU membership, immigration, energy infrastructure, and unprincipled submission to the iron grip of the USA on expression of views on international conflicts such as Israel/Palestine.

Mr Swinney should welcome the election as an opportunity for our Scottish nation to come together and vote for candidates who will be dedicated to ridding us of the democratic deficit which leaves our political fate in the hands of our southern neighbours.
Willie Maclean, Milngavie.

Let’s go back to square one
RISHI Sunak is forever banging on about his ‘Plan’. He doesn’t tell us what his ‘Plan’ is. Why doesn’t somebody ask him? 

Meanwhile he claims that Labour will bring us back to ‘Square one’. Square one is presumably when the Conservatives took over from Labour in 2010.

How were things back at square one? The NHS doing well, low waiting list. No striking doctors. National debt low. Inflation at 2%. No boat people. Tax allowances rising. No striking rail workers. No striking teachers. Six days a week post not under threat. No tuition fees. Seamless trade and travel throughout Europe. Obama President. (Chelsea league champions, so life wasn’t perfect).

As Rishi won’t tell us the ‘Plan’, let’s go back to square one.
Barry Tighe, Woodford Green, Essex.

A hidden message for Scotland
A ‘DAMP squib’ appeared in Downing Street yesterday and it was not just as a result of the rain. A snap general election announced for July 4, a date that has gone down in history but not usually associated in this country, but in America, with Independence Day.

Is there a message here for Scotland ?
Catriona C Clark, Banknock, Falkirk.

A poor show on Reporting Scotland
ON Wednesday, the forthcoming general election got a miserable nine minutes coverage on Reporting Scotland, two minutes of which was a banal vox-pop, before moving quickly on to the really important story, football.

By contrast, Martin Geissler, his Drivetime colleagues and many guests on Radio Scotland had earlier given us over two hours of interesting, informative and exciting radio.
Stuart Neville, Clydebank.

Disrespecting the electorate
JOHN Swinney says that Rishi Sunak has disrespected Scotland by calling a general election on July 4 as the school holidays will have started. For someone who has been in the political arena for as long as he has, I find his point of view to be totally disrespectful towards the electorate.

Postal votes now make up around 20% of people eligible to vote and can be easily obtained from your local council. Could the real reason he is upset about the election be that his party is in total disarray and looks to be relegated to a secondary role in Scottish and UK politics?
Brian Craig, Cumbernauld.

What is there to smile about?
WHY does the Prime Minister insist on appearing on television and grinning when he announces that prices continue to rise, albeit by a smaller amount than in previous months? 

The news that the cost of living has gone up by “only” 2.3% hides the fact that basic food prices are rising by a much greater amount as manufacturers continue to reduce the size of an ever-increasing number of products with no corresponding price adjustment. I suspect that the majority of the great British public don’t consider that this is something to smile about.
Alan McGibbon, Paisley.

An ill omen
THE last July election was in 1945, when the Tories were vanquished by Labour, Clement Attlee recording a landslide victory over Britain’s war-time premier, Winston Churchill. The poll was held on July 5 and ended with Labour on 393 seats and the Conservatives on 197.

Mr Sunak, despite his undoubted other qualities, is evidently not a student of history.
M. Dunne, Glasgow.

Screen drama
I’M putting in a bulk order for six televisions because even after one day of electioneering I want to put my foot through my telly, listening to the utter twaddle that’s being spouted. Is this the best we’ve got?
Michael Watson, Rutherglen.

Where’s the logic?
IT’S difficult to know exactly why Mr Sunak has decided to go to the country in six weeks’ time. There has been some good economic news of late, but wouldn’t it have been more sensible from the Conservatives’ point of view to have waited for a few months so that the future was looking even rosier? And given that Labour will scrap the Rwanda flights policy if Keir Starmer wins on July 4, the vast sums spent by Sunak on this programme will surely have been wasted.
R. Matthews, Glasgow.