SNP should know its place and give up on gesture politics

The Cabinet Secretary, exhibiting his customary air of self-importance, has asserted that the meeting does not "represent a normalisation of relations between the Israeli and Scottish governments”. One might suspect he would have preferred to withdraw the Scottish Ambassador to Israel, but lacking such an option, he resorted to the diplomatic approach pioneered by Nicola Sturgeon in her meeting with Boris Johnson in July 2019: "You will find no photographs of me smiling about meeting the Israelis," he says.

Despite its self-designation as the Scottish Government, Mr Robertson is, in fact, part of a devolved administration. Foreign affairs are not within its jurisdiction. It would greatly benefit the people of Scotland if the administration focused on effectively delivering in the areas for which it is responsible, rather than holding meetings and making statements on matters beyond its remit.

George Rennie, Inverness.

• YOU publish a couple of letters criticising John Mason (August 20). Perhaps your correspondents have forgotten October 7 or maybe forgotten the Holocaust. Hamas and Hezbollah have an avowed aim to eliminate Israel so the only Jewish nation in the world needs to defend itself. If the Arab countries feel so strongly they could take the Gazans into their countries, but they don’t want them.

Maybe John Mason wouldn’t be so strongly criticised if he supported Hamas like a lot of other ill-informed politicians.

Michael Watson, Rutherglen.

READ MORE

• Robertson and Swinney have brought shame on Scotland
• We need to respect our councillors and pay them MSP wages
• So where's the change? Labour is acting just like the Tories

Another assault on democracy

WEEKEND reports that the Scotland Office, and the new governor-general Ian Murray, is to receive £150 million in direct spending funds to bypass Holyrood is a further assault on democracy and devolution by Westminster and an introduction to pork barrel politics ("Robison critical of Murray on funding", The Herald, August 19). The Scotland Office should have become redundant after devolution but the Tories increased the staffing as part of a propaganda war against the Sottish government of the day.

Also, Labour has shown no inclination to amend the Tory Internal Market Bill that ran roughshod over Scotland’s Parliament, or make an early introduction of a Deposit Return Scheme which is successfully operated in Ireland and other European countries, but sabotaged in Scotland by Westminster.

Now Labour is politicising the Scottish Affairs Committee at Westminster, which is supposed to examine how Westminster departments fare in their reserved powers relating to Scotland, by extending its remit to examining Scottish Government decisions at Holyrood.

News that energy bills are set to increase by nine per cent this winter ("Average UK household energy bill set to jump by 9% in October", The Herald, August 20) has blown a hole in Labour’s claims that GB Energy will reduce bills while no action is being taken to tackle the massive profits of energy companies.

Labour is continuing with Tory austerity, not least on the many pensioners who, while not qualifying, or too proud to claim, for the revised means-tested winter fuel payment will struggle with heating bills that are much higher in an energy-rich, but much colder, Scotland.

The proposed new electricity superhighway transferring Scotland's excess electricity to the highly subsided Drax power station will show little benefit to Scotland as the billions of pounds of electricity exports is not reflected in GERS.

Mary Thomas, Edinburgh.

• THANKS to Scottish Secretary Ian Murray and amid all the gloom, some good news for Scots.

Advanced plans have been made for UK Government funding to go directly to Scottish councils via the Scottish Office. So, the dead hand of SNP ultra-incompetence is removed at a stroke and there will be no input from them or side-tracking and, instead of perhaps a new group of fake embassies, those hurting on the front line will get the urgently-needed cash directly.

The Scottish Office has no axe to grind, and any available cash will go where it needs to go.

Alexander McKay, Edinburgh.

Unite to make Scotland better

I FEEL Neil Mackay ("Scotland feels intellectually dead", The Herald, August 20) is a bit overly pessimistic about Scotland. Yes, we are swamped by endless media and political negativity, but basically Scotland is on a par with other UK nations, it’s just the presentation is contextual and perspective-free.

Independence is on the back foot (though still the preference of half the population), but like any political movement, new leadership can change the mood very quickly.

The Tories in Scotland are in a bitter and nasty dogfight, but get a better press, and Anas Sarwar seems to have been around spouting the same nonsense for ever, yet is a favourite of the unionist commentariat.

What can improve things in Scotland outwith the constitutional morass? The boss of Octopus Energy assures us that Scotland produces some of the cheapest electricity in Europe, yet Scotland has the highest electricity prices. If all of Scotland's politicians and media got together and fought for a fair pricing structure, that would alter the economic landscape for consumers and business here. It isn’t an ideological fight so why don’t they?

Ditto the BBC. Why does Scotland get such a poor deal in funding when we pay the same licence fee as other nations/regions? This is not a political fight. I recall Labour telling the SNP: “fight on cultural grounds and we will be with you”. Now is your chance, Labour/SNP/Tories: make Scotland a better place without all the denigration of each other and Scotland.

GR Weir, Ochiltree.

Scottish Secretary Ian Murray (Image: PA)

Standing charge is a disgrace

I NOTE that, from October, our energy costs are about to increase by around 9%. I struggle to understand how the costs are spread across the country.

According to National Grid, “the amount of renewable electricity generated in Scotland in 2022 is equivalent to powering all households in the country for around three and a half years”. So we are a net contributor to the National Grid. Fortunately we are to see the construction of a new underwater pipeline down the east coast to provide our surplus energy to the south.

Why do we pay so much under the heading “standing charge”? Apparently this is due to the cost of distribution of our energy geographically. Therefore areas that are densely populated share this burden evenly, and at a lower rate, than more sparsely populated areas. Less densely populated areas however, have more remote infrastructure to maintain and thus need more support, allegedly. So, in Scotland we provide a surplus of energy to the UK while being charged more for the privilege. From the last figure that I have the population of the South of Scotland pays more than 150 per cent of the standing charge in London.

In the past few weeks the South of England has experienced significantly higher temperatures than the North of Scotland, and unsurprisingly, this trend continues throughout the year. Of course the new Labour administration sees the opportunity to drop the annual winter fuel allowance across the country without any consideration as to the effect on the population living in the north of the UK compared to the south.

I find that the most disturbing aspect of these recent developments is that the SNP is not up in arms and demanding action on behalf of its population. There is such a logical argument to demand a different apportionment of costs across the country. Why are they failing to exploit such an opportunity?

Stewart Lightbody, Troon.

Scotland's rail successes

LAST week, I took the train with my bike from Edinburgh Haymarket to Dalgety Bay. From the rail bridge I was able to admire the beauty of the Queensferry Crossing, delivered early and on budget by our Scottish Government. It was pedal power from Dalgety Bay to Leven where a newly-opened station, another Scottish Government success story, has connected the east of Fife to the Fife Circle and Edinburgh. An hour later, I was back in Edinburgh, full of admiration for an initiative that has seen rail services restored to the Borders through Tweedbank and Reston, and in Fife through Cameron Bridge and Leven.

Well used, they keep traffic off the roads, and offer freedom to those without cars. Perhaps the line past Aberdeen could be similarly extended, but in the light of new Labour budget constrictions, that seems a forlorn hope. With energy prices rising 9% in the autumn, and austerity back on the UK Government menu, there is no money for the Scottish Government to accomplish similar achievements.

Frances Scott, Edinburgh.