Is spending on indy more important than our children's education?

Charles Bannerman, Inverness.

Scrap universal free prescriptions

THERE’S a simple way for the SNP to fund the winter fuel payment for pensioners and that is to scrap the provision of free prescriptions for everyone in Scotland.

It is not merely unfair, but completely immoral, that an OAP with an income of £12,500 will not get this vital contribution to expensive energy costs while even those on more than £40,000, right up to millionaires, get free prescriptions.

Restrict this benefit to those under 18 and over 60, plus pregnant mothers.

David Leggat, Glasgow.

• I'M no economist, but considering social and health spending currently costs about £50 billion per year in Scotland and this is predicted to grow, it seems prudent to ask where money is spent and if it is helping to make Scots healthier, more robust, resilient and autonomous.

Considering that many of our towns are dilapidated, the police do not investigate minor crimes, "non-essential" services are being cut back, rural roads are pockmarked and the last time I phoned the local hospital I was told I could see a nurse practitioner, I think this is a fair question.

I say this as a taxpayer and someone who has been employed in the third sector for 15 years, so I know first-hand the culture of dependency that the SNP is creating and the lack of efficacy of its social programmes (although well-intentioned).

Politically, the SNP will always prioritise social spending over anything else but it now appears to be to the overall detriment of the majority of the population living in a safe and functioning society.

David Bone, Girvan.

READ MORE: GERS shows us how badly the UK is run by Westminster

READ MORE: CMAL's utter stupidity is costing Arran, and Scotland, dear

A policy of denial

I WAS not surprised by Thursday morning’s front page ("Ministers 'had no plan for public sector pay'", The Herald, August 15) and Shona Robison’s much-used wide-eyed look of denial when it is suggested that any chaos surrounding her is anything to do with herself.

The Fraser of Allander Institute’s representative at Strathclyde University warns that the brakes are due to fail spectacularly on public sector pay restraint and all we get is her earnest assurance that it is nothing to do with her.

She reminds me of two brothers I grew up with. Fiercely competitive and always willing to deny responsibility for anything short of outstanding success, they were eventually found out when they returned home for refreshment after being out playing.

A foul smell accompanied them. The source was eventually located in the elder brother’s trousers. When confronted and accused of the personal plumbing misdemeanour, he uttered the unforgettable reply: “It wiznae me, it wiz Jamesie”!

Duncan Graham, Stirling.

Higher taxes? Ok, then

IN response to Richard Allison and Otto Inglis (Letters, August 15) complaining about anticipated tax rises: I have noticed over the years that countries that have the best public services, the best quality of life, and the best standard of living invariably have higher taxes than countries like the UK. I'm looking forward to paying higher taxes if I can have the consequences.

John Jamieson, Ayr.

Filling in the hole

CHANCELLOR Rachel Reeves has claimed that there is a £20 billion black hole in the public finances and “difficult decisions” have to be made. Government estimates for the cost of the Covid measures range from £310 to £410bn. What happened to that black hole?

May I suggest a difficult decision? Cut MPs' salaries by £10,000 and ministers' by £20,000.

Geoff Moore, Alness.

Fixing the revenue problem

JILL Stephenson (Letters, August 16) begs the question of how independence will help with Scotland's revenue/spending deficit. She then mentions Scotland's "resources".

Scotland's deficit is caused by many things, but the biggest reason is that too much of the money generated by those resources doesn't stay in Scotland. That problem is fixable in or out of the Union.

I don't absolutely know if we would make all the right decisions to fix it, if we leave, but I am tolerably certain that it will never be fixed within the Union.

Or can she reassure me otherwise?

Iain Cope, Glasgow.

Let's hear from CMAL chief

THE contributions by your correspondents Roy Pederson and Peter Wright (Letters, August 14) were very illuminating. Their knowledge of ferry operations is obviously extensive, and they raised interesting points which require addressing.

Our family has been holidaying in Arran for more than 40 years. Whilst it was the old terminal and east-west pier, we never experienced a ferry cancellation. We holidayed at Easter, summer and New Year.

We felt that we could book holidays with relative impunity. Not so since the construction of the monstrous white elephant that is the current Brodick terminal.

Last year for the first time we curtailed our summer holiday (we have foregone the Easter and New Year holidays because of the fragility of the service) because of forecast bad weather and the likelihood our booked ferry would be cancelled. We came back via Claonaig on a ferry a fraction of the size of the Caledonian Isles but which seems to be able to sail on many occasions when the larger vessel can’t.

We haven’t gone at all this year like, I am sure, many others.

The design of the new ferries would seem to be completely inappropriate and likely to be impacted by weather conditions because of both the Brodick and Ardrossan terminals.

Adding to the cost of the ferries and greater susceptibility to weather is the provision of accommodation for the staff. Many of these will be catering staff. Whilst we have enjoyed our scrambled egg rolls and the (admittedly very good) bowls of chips, had the catering facilities been more basic, it would not have detracted from our holiday. The crossing is 55 minutes. We would not have starved. We might even have patronised more eating establishments on the island on arrival.

Your correspondents reference CMAL which is central to the whole ferries debacle. Few people would be able to name the CMAL CEO such is his low profile. His name is Kevin Hobbs.

Is it not about time we heard from him and can he explain how we have come to this sorry mess and what his plans are for resolving the current crisis and averting future ones?

He is the one person who seems to be slipping under the radar. I suspect he uses a submarine when (if) he ever visits any of the islands.

William Thomson, Denny.

Is it time we heard more from Kevin Hobbs, the CEO of CMAL? (Image: Newsquest)

Don't shoot the messenger

REGARDING the current spat around the use of social media to promote right-wing views I am prompted to recall a cartoon series from my childhood which has some relevance to the debate. I refer to Stop the Pigeon, which focused on the efforts of Dick Dastardly and his canine sidekick Muttley to catch Yankee Doodle Pigeon, a carrier pigeon who carries secret messages during the First World War. They have many mishaps along the way, and they never stopped the pigeon.

The relevance to today is the focus on seeking sanctions on Twitter and other platforms is in reality just the digital version of Stop the Pigeon with the same outcome.

Demanding that social media scrutinise their content and decide who or what gets published takes us down the road of censorship and is potentially even more harmful to our right to freedom of speech and expression.

The proverbial genie is out of the bottle and attacking the messenger is doomed to fail No one is forced to participate in social media and the decision to stay or go is down to each of us as individuals. If content offends, then leave or fight back.

It should be noted that not everything about social media is bad. It allows friendships to flourish despite geographical separation, it can entertain us and educate us and in some ways improve mental health. Social media is not my thing but I have no issue with people posting pictures of grandchildren, holidays or what they are about to have for their tea.

Leaving a platform can reduce stress. If you don’t read it it can’t hurt you.

Galileo would have it that “tastes, odours, sounds and so on…reside only in the consciousness. If the living creature were removed all those qualities would be wiped away and annihilated”. So shooting the messenger won’t solve the problem and may make things worse, which is all very frustrating.

Or as Dick Dastardly would say, "drat , drat and double drat”.

Keith Swinley, Ayr.

• LIKE Ian Fulton (Letters, August 10), I have also received unsolicited postings of a blatantly racist content, inciting violence. I reported two of these which were particularly offensive but was told the post "did not go against our community standards". This with a backdrop of violent protests in England directed mainly at the Muslim community.

Years ago a post appeared from an American showing a burning house with the caption "A warm welcome to my Muslim neighbours". I reported this but again it was not considered to breach the standards of Facebook. If advocating burning people alive because of their religion doesn't breach their code, what does?

It is time those in charge of Facebook were held to account.

Phyllis Khanna, Dalry.

• SIR Keir Starmer's Government is introducing a test about what can and cannot be said online: if content is legal, but harmful, it must be removed. But who is to say what is harmful? If I were to state the following fact, that while 94 white people have been killed by Muslim terrorists in the UK over the past 20 years but no Muslims have been killed by white terrorists, would that constitute a harmful statement? Or will factual statements like that be proscribed and their authors arrested and charged?

William Loneskie, Lauder.

Misplaced logic in hanging debate

Alan Fitzpatrick (Letters, August 13) asks me if I believe in the deterrent effect of the death penalty.

My answer is no I don’t.

Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama are the three US states with the highest murder rates. Those three states also still have the death penalty. New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine have the lowest murder rates yet do not use the death penalty.

There were almost 20,000 murders in the US last year and 81per cent of them were by firearm.

Mr Fitzpatrick is using logic when considering the deterrent effect. I very much doubt that murderers give as much thought to their actions before carrying them out.

David Clark, Tarbolton.

Return to sender

SO the Altar Stone at Stonehenge is actually Scots? When can we have it back?

Gordon Casely, Crathes.