YOU have published several letters recently with completely differing views on GERS. The undeniable fact is that when oil was flowing fast the proceeds were not going to Scotland but now that it is not flowing so fast we are being classed as a nation on benefits from England.

Scotland helped to elect a new Labour Government which was bent on change. Where is this change? Labour has chosen to help Ukraine by providing tanks rather than keep the winter fuel allowance for pensioners. It continues to back Israel's horrible acts against the Palestinians whilst baying how well it is punishing protesters against an immigration policy which has changed the face of much of Britain. It is going hard against poor lawbreakers while ignoring the acts of the very rich who are putting many in the country into poverty. The relative poverty of many parts outside the south of England is caused by the people in the south-east who rule the whole country.

I wonder if these people who claim that we are better as part of the Union have read any history. From the Highland Clearances through the rent strikes in the First World War through the Depression Scotland has always been treated more harshly than the South of England (I know that some parts of the North of England feel the same). And yet we continue to support rule from Westminster. This Labour government has shown its true colours and is acting no differently than the Tories.

Jim McAdam, Maidens.

• JOHN V Lloyd (Letters, August 15) rightly refers to the "deafening silence" from "Scottish" Labour, which comes only weeks after Anas Sarwar told us "Watch my lips. No austerity under Labour". I am reminded of the old joke from the last time Labour held the majority of Scottish seats at Westminster: How many Labour MPs does it take to change a lightbulb? None. Labour MPs never change anything.

Ruth Marr, Stirling.

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

READ MORE: Robertson and Swinney have brought shame on Scotland

Scots are being gaslit

I CHALLENGE you. Look through any newspaper in Scotland and find a positive story about our country. You will struggle. Every new day is characterised by a new doom. Education is failing. Hospitals are crumbling. Our civil liberties are being threatened. Asteroids are falling from the sky and the seven plagues of Egypt are about to descend upon Edinburgh.

Wherever there’s a negative story, the Scottish Labour Party is not far behind, ready to validate how rubbish Scotland is. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not pretending it’s all rainbows and unicorns. Scotland has not been immune to poor economic decisions made in Westminster. A financial crash, a decade of austerity, and a pandemic to boot. Yet it’s not quite the Dickens novel that Labour would have you believe we’re all living in.

Scots are being gaslit, and it’s not good for the nation’s psyche.

Recently, my Gran was rushed to hospital in severe pain on a Tuesday. Within a day she was diagnosed. Finding shared sleeping quarters difficult, she was quickly moved to her own room. Her one complaint? Doctors checked in on her too often. Operated on by Friday afternoon and back home with a new lease of life by Monday.

I know that’s not everyone’s experience, but it was ours. The doctors were clear. Had she not arrived at hospital when she did, she would have died. My family owe a debt to the NHS. It serves no one to constantly talk the institution down, whilst offering no ideas on how to improve it. Yet, this is what Scottish Labour is doing every day. Positive stories like ours get little coverage.

Relentless negativity isn’t good for a nation’s mental health. Scottish Labour being the midwife of doom is unsurprising. Looking to 2026, its hopes of regaining power at Holyrood rely upon Scots believing that everything is broken. A message of despair, instead of hope. Little is said about what Scottish Labour would do to improve public services, when faced with the same fiscal constraints that plague the SNP.

As the UK Government, Labour could of course resolve the fiscal challenges of devolved institutions quickly, but Rachel Reeves is hell bent on more austerity. Instead, Labour will carp from the sidelines about education failing, despite Scotland having one of the best-educated workforces in Europe.

Even our economy performed comparatively better than the rest of the UK last year. Inward investment is second only to London. So yes, there are challenges, but the sky, my friends, is not falling.

Despite challenges, Scotland remains an attractive place to live and work, with a well-educated and skilled workforce. It’s irresponsible of politicians to be harbingers of doom, in the pursuit of power. Their negativity will become self-fulfilling. Yet their negative narrative is filled with more holes than a sieve.

Scottish Labour should do the nation’s health a service and turn down the gas, it’s summer after all.

Colin Storrier, Edinburgh.

Time to throw off the shackles

I READ Dr Rashmi Mantri's column ("What can the UK learn from India’s success?", Agenda, The Herald, August 15) with great interest. She asks what Britain can learn from India, pointing out that the country has recently moved ahead of Britain and become the fifth-largest world economy. He attributes this to the fact that in the 76 years after independence, when only one-sixth of the population was literate, education in the STEM subjects and a massive investment in infrastructure have transformed the country.

This must be painful for some of your misty-eyed British nationalist correspondents. Along with the fact that both Romania and Poland will have higher living standards than we do by 2030, surely this is the time when Scots should throw off the shackles that bind us to a country which lives in the past, droning on about its former imperial grandeur, believing itself still to be internationally influential when the truth is that the only well-funded institution in the country is the monarchy and no one takes much notice of what the UK Government says or does.

The latest example, the letter from Emmanuel Macron, Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz telling Iran to exercise restraint, is utterly laughable, when they have completely failed to restrain their "ally" Israel, continuing to provide weapons, intelligence and forward bases for an unrelenting 10 months of obscene carnage against a people who don't even have an army.

There is a reason that India, China, Ireland, Norway, South Korea and the Global South do not support this and our leaders cannot see the writing on the wall. Scotland needs to choose a future which puts our people first, rather than the endless cycle of deranged military adventurism dictated by a clapped-out 19th century Kiplingesque delusion.

Marjorie Thompson, Edinburgh.

Heading down a slippery slope

THE day of decision will soon be upon us with regard to a law on assisted dying.

There are powerful and respected voices amongst the proponents of this proposition, their arguments in favour being based upon the need for compassion and the introduction of strict rules to prevent the expansion of assisted dying beyond the restrictions imposed by such a law.

If an assisted dying law finds its way on to the statute books, we could be opening the door to usher in the heartless society under the camouflage of compassion Of course, people such as Charlie Falconer and Esther Rantzen would throw up their hands up in horror at such a suggestion, both playing upon their reputations as influencers on this matter.

They will deny that such a law would be the slippery slope down which we would inevitably descend thanks to the strict regulations imposed by the new law.

Why can't they see that such a measure would alter the doctor/patient relationship, create a culture of expectation in the terminally ill to consider such an exit and provide a charter amongst medical practitioners of the Shipman ilk to indulge in such morbidity?

Do they really believe that pressure groups will not make themselves felt to loosen the regulations to extend the right to assisted dying to individuals and groups not covered by the initial law?

Should we be wary of introducing assisted dying?Should we be wary of introducing assisted dying? (Image: Shutterstock)

You could see those suffering from dementia and other irreversible conditions being brought under an expansion of the right to die. After all they take up a lot of time, energy and money in caring for them, all of which could be used more productively on the economically active.

Are we really trying to convert to a lean, mean society where cost trumps genuine compassion?

I could foresee a novelist like Martin Amis or Margaret Atwood producing a story about our dystopian future where every individual undergoes a human MOT to ensure that being economically active is still well within the person's capacities, any failure in that direction carting the individual off to the euphemistically named Relaxation Room.

Our elected representatives should carefully consider what the effects of unintended consequences would be if such a law came into force.

Denis Bruce, Bishopbriggs.