Gordon Brown was one of the worst PMs Britain has ever had

As Chancellor, he sold Britain's gold reserves when the gold price was at an all time low; he taxed the pension funds, ensuring the demise of the final salary scheme; he funded Tony Blair's illegal war; he bankrupted the country leading to 10 years of austerity and his longest-lasting and most expensive legacy is his "keep it off the books" scam, PFI, for which we are still paying dearly.

David Hay, Minard.

A pair of failures

NEITHER Tony Blair, born in Edinburgh the same year I was born, nor Gordon Brown, born two years earlier, did anything for Scotland as far as I can see. They spent North Sea oil money on Cool Britain and the funding of the British NHS and education. In the meantime, they installed a useless devolved parliament that was designed to neutralise good governance.

They presided over the decline of Scottish industry throughout their prime political years. Furthermore, Gordon Brown’s plea for a greater Federal Britain has fallen on deaf Labour ears.

Just in case you think I am a supporter of the SNP I am not. Alex Salmond still holds the prize in my mind for the most ambitious politician for Scotland’s future wellbeing. I look forward to someone emerging with a similar ambition. A tough act to follow, I have to say.

Ian Godden, Edinburgh.

Read more letters

• Alex Salmond top Scots figure? No, that's Gordon Brown
• Glasgow is two cities: one for the middle-class and one for the rest

When the mask slipped

I DON’T suppose Victor Clements’ letter showing great admiration for Saint Gordon (Brown) was meant to be funny. But how I laughed.

When Alex Salmond became First Minister, Saint Gordon didn’t even have the courtesy to call Mr Salmond and congratulate him on being democratically elected as First Minister. That seems a bit childish.

When Alex Salmond became First Minister he immediately scrapped the Forth Road Bridge tolls, thus immediately helping many of Chancellor Brown’s constituents who commuted to Edinburgh daily. One would have thought that Chancellor Brown should have done that?

Then we all got the chance to see the real Saint Gordon when the mask slipped when he called Mrs Duffy a bigoted woman. Not to her face though.

Brilliant in the financial crisis? Was it a world banking crisis? I know my bank, Santander, needed no financial support from the Government because it didn’t go down Saint Gordon’s avenue of light-touch regulation that allowed people like Fred Goodwin to run riot.

Take the Brown-tinted glasses off and have another look.

I Archibald, Edinburgh.

• TAKING issue with Victor Clements' eulogy of Gordon Brown, "Prudence", as he was known at the time, boasting "no return to boom-and-bust", presided over the mother of all busts, with even a run on a bank (Northern Rock). To this day we're paying the price for his and his sidekick Alastair Darling's folly, through unduly low interest rates. And that's not even to mention the gold sale fiasco of 1999.

George Morton, Rosyth.

Winners and losers

I WOULD remind Victor Clements that Alex Salmond won the 2007 Holyrood election and followed that by winning the 2011 election with a remarkable landslide, something that was never supposed to happen in the Scottish Parliament. Mr Clements refers to Mr Brown's record in government, but he lost the only General Election he led as Prime Minister, and as Chancellor it was his signature on the cheques that paid for the illegal war in Iraq. Mr Brown should have supported Robin Cook, who resigned as Leader of the House of Commons in protest against the invasion of Iraq.

Mr Clements contends that since leaving office, Mr Brown "has been quietly influential, supporting his team and retaining his dignity and self-respect". Well, presumably he buys his own suits and glasses, and he hasn't been seen whooping it up at a Taylor Swift concert, so credit where it is due for that.

Ruth Marr, Stirling.

The diminishing of Scotland

ON some days, all topics appear to converge.

We have Brian Wilson and quangos, the largest of which is surely the House of Lords ("When will we get to grips with undemocratic quangos?", The Herald, October 18). We have praise lavished for Gordon Brown, though not a single proposal of his for Scotland has survived: federalism within two years; the House of Lords democratised as a forum for the nations and regions (which Labour pretended to support). Today we have Andy Maciver beating the drum (again) for mayoralties in Scotland, though number, size and purpose are omitted ("Why did Starmer not include Scottish regional champions? We haven’t any", The Herald, October 18).

It would be my view that Andy Burnham is well known because the BBC as an overwhelmingly England-centric radio and TV broadcaster these days (isn’t it time for Holyrood to debate the pitiful state of broadcasting in Scotland?), wants to give someone from the “North” lots of airtime to pontificate about the “North”, and justify the quarter of a billion pounds spent on their “northern” studios (Manchester). I suspect Keir Starmer has exactly what he wants: the diminishing of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to almost “parish” status, the Lords as his future retirement home and Westminster reduced to the role of his own personal rubber stamp.

And so far all Labour has proposed for Scotland are cuts to planned spending, while thousands of jobs are being funded elsewhere.

GR Weir, Ochiltree.

Anxious customers of the Northern Rock bank queue outside its Darlington branch in 2007 (Image: Newsquest)

Raising taxes is in Labour DNA

HOW astonishingly quickly this Labour Government has built mistrust amongst the electorate, primarily driven by the Prime Minister and the Chancellor. The evidence is clear-cut and will be confirmed and presented to the jury (aka the electorate) via the Budget by the key witness Rachel Reeves, Chancellor of the Exchequer.

In a little over 100 days, the evidence will show that their manifesto and statements detailing “commitments were fully costed” and that there would be “no increases in tax for working people” were at best disingenuous and at worst untruthful. Eventually the electorate will realise that raising taxes is in the Labour DNA ultimately to meet the demands of its union paymasters and its overriding desire to make those with “the broadest shoulders” distribute their wealth.

Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves insist that growth of the economy is the objective. We are about to find out how that objective will be consigned to the bin as businesses and job and wealth creators will be hammered in the Budget.

Richard Allison, Edinburgh.

Exploiting small businesses

BRIAN Wilson’s insightful analysis of the stranglehold quangos have on our public services is spot on. The tragedy lies in the continued inaction of our politicians, who seem content to allow these entities to dominate unchallenged.

At the micro level, the smallest businesses in town centres - especially under the banner of Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) - are particularly vulnerable. Organisations like Scotland’s Towns Partnership and Improvement Districts Scotland advise local authorities and the often-private companies running these BIDs, leaving small businesses at their mercy.

Alloa’s small businesses, along with others burdened by exorbitant BID levies, have been vocal in their protests, but to no avail. These quangos, along with the ministers responsible, seem indifferent to the plight of local traders. The root of the problem lies in the Planning etc. (Scotland) Act 2006, which created BIDs without setting a cap on levy levels - unlike in England, where the levy is typically 1.5% to 2.5% capped at 4%. In contrast, BID levies in Scotland can range from a negligible 0.004% for the largest businesses to an unsustainable 9% or more for the smallest.

This injustice is laid bare by comparing BIDs across regions. Stirling, Falkirk, and Linlithgow have kept levies below 2.5% and have not raised them at renewal. Meanwhile, in Alloa, a third of businesses saw their BID levies surge by 30%, despite their levies already being considerably higher than in neighbouring BIDs.

Despite these glaring discrepancies, quangos, local authorities, and ministers alike have allowed this exploitation to continue unchecked. The message is clear: those in power care little for the small businesses being squeezed by unjust levies.

Government by quango is undermining democracy and, like the failed governance of Scotland’s ferry network, it is ordinary people who bear the brunt. Politicians could, and should, do far more to rein in these unelected bodies.

Daphne Hamilton, Alloa.

This is ethnic cleansing

THERE has been something of a debate in the Letters Pages as to whether what is happening to the Palestinians is “genocide” or not. In that context I suggest the term “ethnic cleansing” is far more appropriate, it being how the Palestinians see it.

Going back to 1948, 700,000 of the indigenous Palestinian population fled or were driven from their homes and land. However ethnic cleansing involves more than clearing the land of its people. It involves a cultural cleansing as exemplified by the 70,000 books taken by the invading forces from private Palestinian libraries in 1948. In the current conflict Israeli soldiers are engaged in firing “randomly” at cultural and educational institutes, causing severe panic among students and staff during their daily routine of activities and lectures.

However I suggest that the most horrifying element of the current cleansing is the killing and maiming of Palestinian children, Palestine’s future. The latest estimate is that more than 14,000 children have been killed with around one million having been internally displaced. According to Unicef they do not have enough access to water, food, fuel and medicine, their families torn apart multiple times in the course of which they have lost homes, parents and loved ones. The consequences of these traumatic experiences will last a lifetime.

I do not suggest such cleansing is the intention of the Israeli majority who mistakenly believe that what is happening will bring them security but I suggest it is being welcomed by extremist religious ethnonationalists, a number of whom hold positions of influence in the Israeli Parliament.

John Milne, Uddingston.

• JIM Sillars (Letters, October 18) makes a very valid point in relation to Norman Ogston’s assertion (Letters, October 16) of Israel’s claim of a divine right to Palestine (that is, that a right flowing from a deity whose existence is doubted by many isn’t very convincing). Mr Ogston might also bear in mind that, in earlier days, both Jews and Muslims had a common belief in the “God of Abraham” (Jahweh or Allah respectively), so one has to wonder why this supposed common god would have preferred one tribe over another in terms of territorial inheritance.

Brian Chrystal, Edinburgh.

Glasgow doesn't deserve CRM

NEWS came to me here in New York that Glasgow is planning to sell the treasure of Martyrs’ School, an early work for Charles Rennie Mackintosh ("Fears for Mackintosh legacy as Martyrs’ School goes up for sale", The Herald, October 18). This, of course, after the Glasgow School of Art burned down. Twice.

Glasgow didn’t value Mackintosh enough in 1900, and certainly doesn’t deserve him now.

Laura Euler, Montauk, NY.