Readers' letters: Scotland's freebies should see off threat of bin strike

The unions have had an above-inflation offer but want more – the same as comparable workers in England, to be precise. This is not reasonable and the SNP should be reminding the unions why. For years we have been used to the SNP telling us that things are much better up here because we have lower taxes (!), free higher education, baby boxes, free prescriptions, bus passes at 60, higher child benefits and a host of other things.

Rather than simply give in to all the potential union demands that will undoubtably arise, John Swinney should be highlighting how these much-heralded benefits outweigh the extra settlement down south, or at least making an attempt to do so.

Devolution will always ensure such differences, but allowing unions to be selective about every offer elsewhere in the UK will be disastrous. Differences just create a position of envy – as we are witnessing here.

Ken Currie, Edinburgh

Gaelic’s not dead

Although Stan Hogarth (Letters, 25 July) justifiably describes Holyrood’s walls as being “made of mirrors, all of them inward looking”, his opinion that Gaelic is “a dead language” unworthy of support must be challenged.

Just as their political cousins Sinn Féin and Plaid Cymru have done with Irish and Welsh, the SNP try to weaponise Gàidhlig. They’ve attempted to steal the language (along with the saltire) to identify it with their own movement. But how many separatist MPs or MSPs have even bothered to learn it? Precious few.

Hence the pointless gimmicks which Mr Hogarth rightly complains of, such as signage outwith Gàidhealtachd regions “all written in a (to 99 per cent of us) foreign tongue.”

Money wasted in this way would be better spent supporting native-speaking communities where it is still alive (though seriously endangered) and funding bilingual education in places where there is a demand for it.

Nobody who is made aware of the expressive richness of Celtic languages would wish to see their extinction, and if this happened we would all be the poorer for it.

Martin O’Gorman, Edinburgh

Pure hypocrisy

The utter hypocrisy of the SNP is astonishing but not surprising. SNP MP Dave Doogan was on Radio Scotland on Thursday criticising Sir Keir Starmer’s decision to offer no new oil exploration licences, lauding SNP support for the sector.

We all remember Nicola Sturgeon grandstanding, declaring, to satisfy her Green masters, there should be no new oil exploration, condemning workers, families and businesses to the dustbin. Well, surprise, surprise, Mr Doogan today, doing a complete U-turn, opposing and criticising Labour party policy in an effort to draw favour to his party, which is in big trouble.

The SNP U-turn was essential for Stephen Flynn’s Aberdeen success and no doubt he had a word in Mr Swinney’s ear to change policy. The hypocrisy of this party is appalling.

​Douglas Cowe,Kingseat, Aberdeenshire

Cherry picking

Joanna Cherry states on X that she “has decided to step back from front-line politics”. What? She’s decided? She lost her Edinburgh South West seat in a 23.4 per cent swing from the SNP to Labour’s Scott Arthur.

Get a grip, Joanna: the people decided, not you.

Martin Redfern, Melrose, Roxburghshire

Something stinks

We have had to listen to SNP boasts of having nationalised water companies in Scotland for some time. However, the gloating on bettering the still private companies down south suffering from horrific sewage leakages was unnecessary.

Especially now when we learn there have been 15 per cent more sewage overflows than was first reported by Scottish Water, who have had to revise their figures (Scotsman, 23 July). It is all so very SNP.

I have no problem with water being nationalised; but I have plenty of problems with infantile gloating and “na-na-na-na-na” refrains over such serious matters.

Still, it was unlikely that Stephen Flynn would be rolled out to pose in front of an English water HQ mockingly crying as he did in best primary three style after the Euro final. He can return to his seafood feasts as food banks in the country he professes to love proliferate.

Alexander McKay, Edinburgh

Strong evidence

The Scottish Sentencing Council has launched a public consultation on sentencing for rape. In England it used to be a capital offence, even after 1832 when convictions for arson, highway robbery, horse stealing and forgery ceased to attract a death sentence.

A distant relative of mine, Thomas Pennington, was turnkey at Lancaster Castle, and information that has long been in the public domain shows that in 1834 he was paid £1.15.8 for attending the public execution of John Heyes for rape, as well as for providing the execution cap and arranging the taking down of the body.

Such an event rests firmly in the history books.

But it is worth reflecting that at a time long before DNA and CCTV analyses helped investigators, and when police duties involved a multitude of tasks including street cleaning and night soil removal, rape was taken seriously enough to merit the assemblance of evidence strong enough to convict in the face of a lethal outcome for the offender.

Capital punishment is off the statute book, thankfully, but rape hasn’t changed since the 1830s, a historical argument favouring investigative zeal at the highest level as well as punishments draconian rather than trivial.

Hugh Pennington, Aberdeen

PM is an autocrat

In his first PM’s Questions. Sir Keir Starmer brushed aside questions about the seven Labour MPs who voted against his government and supported the cancellation of the two-child benefit cap (Scotsman, July 24), claiming that he wouldn’t take lessons from the SNP about what the Scottish people want when they lost so many of their seats in the General Election.

This from a party which swept to power with a 400-seat majority on 34 per cent of a 59 per cent turnout. The Labour Party didn’t win the election, the “none of the above” did, and it is generally accepted that many of those who did vote Labour did so not because they favoured its policies, but to get the Tories out of office. So he shouldn’t be confident that he speaks for the people any more than any other party in government.

Yet it is certain that he will use his majority to ram through Labour policies and trample over any challenge to his authority. We had a foretaste of this when his members “talked out” an SNP motion to “call for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire” in Gaza. Not only that, Sir Keir had to admit that, although he hadn’t pressured Sir Lindsay Hoyle to intervene in the procedure, he had “talked to him”.

Anyone who believes that Sir Keir will encourage good relations with all parties despite the colour of their rosettes is in for a big disappointment. This man is an autocrat whose attitude to co-operation will actually mean obeying his diktat.

Lovina Roe, Perth, Perth & Kinross

Labour folly

I am amazed that the new government are not ending the two-child cap on child benefit. I am even more amazed the Labour whip has been removed from seven MPs because of this. Ending the cap is the easiest quickest simplest and cheapest way of lifting 600,000 children out of poverty.

Nigel Boddy, Darlington, County Durham

Whose energy?

Can somebody tell the Right Honourable Sir Kier Starmer, Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath, that Scotland does not need “GB Energy”. The Scottish Government has been doing enough to develop production of sufficient renewable energy. GB Energy is nothing more than a crumb off the London table, with England once again being the main beneficiary.

Perhaps Energy Minister Ed Miliband can tell us what added benefit GB Energy brings to Scotland and if it in any way goes toward delivering on the “Vow” he made to Scotland on the eve of our independence referendum in 2014.

We have been waiting a decade now for a sign of anything that he promised being delivered that an independent Scotland could not have done as well or better for ourselves.

What Scotland really needs is the power to take control of our energy supply so that it can be sold to our population at reasonable cost.

We need to get off the Westminster roundabout that brings us lies and broken promises from the Conservative and Labour Parties in turn – of course not forgetting the Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition.

Ni Holmes, St Andrews, Fife

Pet sounds

When the most powerful woman on the planet – in terms of financial and social clout – is childless cat lady Taylor Swift, Donald Trump may find running mate JD Vance’s sneers dog his chances of re-entering the White House.

Just ask Neil Kinnock and Gordon Brown how easily one artless sentence destroys the best campaigns.

Mark Boyle, Johnstone, Renfrewshire

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