Thank you, Stephen Flynn for giving Keir Starmer the chance he needed

With the huge majority it commands Labour can do this with ease. For whoever came up with this wheeze, it is back to the drawing board I'm afraid.

Alexander McKay, Edinburgh.

• FOR the past nine years we have had a series of SNP leaders in Parliament wasting questions either of grudge or virtue-signalling and yesterday Stephen Flynn didn't disappoint with his demand for an end to the two-child benefit cap and posing it as one-trick-pony solution to child poverty.

There needs to be a much more holistic approach to the issue and he would do well to take heed of Work and Pensions Minister Liz Kendall, who said yesterday: "I’m not going to look constituents in the face and tell them I’m going to do something without actually having done the sums, figuring out how I’m going to pay for it, figuring out how we transform opportunity for those children, not just in terms of their household income, which is essential, but about having sustained improvements to helping people get work and get on in work, more childcare, early years support, sorting out the dire state of people’s housing."

A lot for Mr Flynn to take in, but vital that he does.

Allan Sutherland, Stonehaven.

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What will the SNP do next?

NOW that all nine SNP MPs have voted to scrap the two-child benefit cap, we can assume it is SNP policy. John Swinney has admitted that the Scottish Government has the powers to mitigate this benefit in Scotland. In which case, when can we expect the SNP MSPs at Holyrood to implement their own policy? Or are SNP MSPs just going to blithely ignore the passionate advocation and votes of their own party's MPs, thus confirming that the vote was less to do with alleviating child poverty and more about the promotion of grievance and performative politics?

Alex Gallagher, Largs.

READ MORE: Get a grip: pensioners are not the enemy of the young

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The honeymoon is over

THE supine Labour MPs from Scotland who voted to continue with the two-child benefit cap remind me of the Oliver Brown quote that “a shiver ran through Scottish Labour MPs looking for a spine to run up”.

Having campaigned to get rid of this draconian piece of Tory legislation during the election campaign, it is disingenuous to say that there is no money at present as child poverty in the UK could be eliminated by ending the higher rate tax relief on pension contributions that the wealthiest enjoy. The Scottish Government, with its finite resources, has tackled the issue through the Scottish Child Payment and lifted around 100,000 families out of poverty.

Labour has also put hundreds of Scottish jobs in jeopardy by refusing to guarantee a £200 million loan for the Harland & Wolff shipyard, which employs 400 people in Scotland at Anish and Methil, despite the fact that in December UK Export Finance, the government credit agency, agreed to the guarantee in principle. The Belfast shipyard has never made a profit and illustrates the problems facing all UK shipbuilders, including Ferguson Marine which is now owned by the Scottish Government.

The Labour Government’s honeymoon is over and perhaps more people will now appreciate the difficulties facing the Scottish Government that mainly relies on a fixed budget from Westminster plus continued UK austerity since Brexit. However, on the day unions are demanding that the Scottish Government find an extra £50 million to settle industrial disputes ("Unions put pressure on FM over bin strike cash", The Herald, July 24), it is worth noting that the royal family will receive an additional £45 million next year.

Mary Thomas, Edinburgh.

• IS there any constitutional reason why the seven Labour MPs who actually care about child poverty and defied Keir Starmer should not join the SNP despite representing English constituencies?

They may also be happy with a leader who does not boast about pressing the nuclear button, who dies not fail to take a moral stance on Gaza, who supports free care for the elderly and doesn't treat their own MPs appallingly (ref Diane Abbot).

Come on in, the water ain't full of sewage.

Amanda Baker, Edinburgh.

Keeping to two is vital

AS most global problems are directly due to a vastly and increasingly overpopulated planet, the importance of restricting families to a replacement two is just about the most important thing that everyone can do. A concerted effort is needed to reduce the population growth and climate change pressures that are behind so much emigration and extreme weather. Let nature recover. We are getting the planet we deserve, so let's deserve better. Two will do.

Tim Flinn, Garvald, East Lothian.

Look at the real world

I FOUND Rashaad Shabab's article ("Stop favouring pensioners. Let's invest in our young", The Herald, July 23), tiresome. By all means invest in the young but for heavens sake get off the backs of pensioners.

Like the vast majority of the silver generation I worked long hours in all sorts of weather to get where I am today. And I have two children who were educated through university, with little or no outside support.

I bought my first house, when I could afford a mortgage at age 44: interest rate at 17 and a half per cent. The mortgage was finally paid off when I was 75.

Perhaps if Dr Shabab spent less time mired in statistics and took a peek into the real world he might see things differently.

Dan Edgar, Rothesay.

• RASHAAD Shabab fails to take account of the fact that many pensioners are facing hardship and having to choose between heating or eating. The UK is the sixth wealthiest country in the world, but provides one of the lowest pensions in Europe. Dr Shabab should be focusing on the wealthy citizens in this country and advocating a wealth tax. Providing proper pensions will contribute to healthier retired people, requiring less NHS treatment, thus saving money on hospital treatments for retired citizens.

Jim Mackenzie, Edinburgh.

The workers' right to strike

NEIL Stewart (Letters, July 24) expresses an arrogant indignation that council waste workers should demand a decent wage. He gives a long list of things for which there is "no thought". One item he does not mention is that there is no thought for the importance of their work.

As usual, workers who provide vital or important services are taken for granted as long as they do not ask for decent working conditions. When they propose striking as a last resort, they are "holding the nation to ransom". When banks, energy suppliers or various financial institutions hold the nation to ransom, that is just business.

It would be interesting to know the social relevance of those industries which never need to strike.

Peter Dryburgh, Edinburgh.

Let's vote on the monarchy

I THANK Eddie Robertson (Letters, July 24) for his thought-provoking, heartfelt letter on the folly of monarchy. If anything justifies a referendum this surely does. Can I strongly urge anyone interested in the subject to read Graham Smith’s very readable and well-argued book on the subject: Abolish the Monarchy?

Doug Clark, Currie.

JD Vance with Donald Trump (Image: Getty Images)

What happened to JD Vance?

THERE has been considerable mention of JD Vance’s widely acclaimed book Hillbilly Elegy since he became Donald Trump’s running mate in the forthcoming US election.

I read it, from memory, in 2019, and I thought he came across as quite a reasonable man with an honest story of his troubled upbringing, going on to describe his reasoning as to why so many people from his community and others like it voted for Trump in 2016. It was well-written, engaging and one strong memory of it was him constantly telling himself not to get involved in the violence that besmirched his community. I enjoyed the book.

I now ask myself what has happened to JD Vance to say things like he doesn’t care what happens to Ukraine? I was astonished to see the change in him, as I interpret it, but a contact I have in the US is not surprised and saw it coming for years.

Clearly I was fooled, which matters not one jot, but I fear a large number of Americans are going to be fooled by his and Donald Trump’s rhetoric. Again. Be thankful that across here, we have seen through the cynical levelling-up slogan.

Willie Towers, Alford.