Sir, – Last week it was the turn of the Scottish Liberal Democrats to hold their conference.
Party leaders told the delegates at Aviemore that they were leading on mental health.
They were, they said, taking the Scottish Government to task.
What I suspect was missing from conference speeches was the evidence from Scotland’s Chief Medical Officer who reported last week that mental health had worsened because of the impact of welfare reform.
It is significant to note that the Liberal Democrats were themselves responsible for this during their coalition with the Conservatives in 2010-15.
As Scotland looks to develop its own security system, modest perhaps in comparison to the responsibilities of Westminster, it has already demonstrated either through its citizen panels involving those affected by mental health in the shaping of the new system, or by not introducing a sanctions regime in its work programme, a more enlightened approach.
I hope Liberal Democrats continue to take the government to task.
To so do is a very important part of their role.
However, they must also acknowledge the positive direction of travel by the Scottish Government.
However, while doing so, they should also be big enough to reflect on their own unhelpful role in introducing the policies which did so much to undermine the care and treatment of mental health problems.
Iain Anderson.
41 West End,
St Monans.
Politicians are very trying
Sir, – In his address to the Liberal Democrats’ Aviemore gathering, Willie Rennie urged voters to “try the Lib-Dems”.
We already have Willie but unfortunately Alistair Carmichael got off.
Malcolm Cordell.
35 Fort Street,
Broughty Ferry.
Intellect but poor judgment
Sir, – It seems that your correspondent Jill Stephenson is on the lookout for any opportunity to have a go at the SNP in general and the First Minister in particular.
However, the vast majority of her recent letter (Courier, April 20) represents no more than inaccurate nit-picking.
First she suggests that senior party members with personal views on certain issues are a party weakness and planned rallies by the rank and file are signs of impatience in the wait for another referendum.
She also suggests that the First Minister’s judgment is suspect because two former ministers have a different view.
She even talks about mutterings which in any other language means rumours.
Her big mistake was to make reference to a company called Cambridge Analytica, a firm with undisputed links to the party of her choice, which is under the spotlight for misuse of personal data found on social media.
Despite the fact that this company initiated an unsuccessful bid to interest the SNP in its services she accuses the SNP of hypocrisy for reporting the facts of the matter.
As a professor emeritus of St Andrews university her high IQ rating is surely not in doubt, but being credited with a high level of intelligence does not necessarily guarantee that the individual’s judgment is reliable, which is a pity because her entirely misleading conclusion was highlighted as the quote of the day in the letters page.
Allan A MacDougall.
37 Forth Park,
Bridge of Allan.
Shameful stance on immigration
Sir, – It is 50 years since Enoch Powell’s Rivers of Blood speech and 20 years since Gordon Brown parroted the BNP slogan “British jobs for British workers”.
Today we run a vile immigration policy and our 3.5 million EU residents are rightly worried.
Immigration officials used to have discretion to accept common sense evidence of UK nationality such as job record or pension.
However, Theresa May’s inflexible, doctrinaire policy of intimidation requires migrants provide four pieces of documentation.
The “deport first and appeal later” Immigration Act of 2014 turned employers and landlords into an immigrant police force.
Now key workers are going home joined by those nurses and teachers who cannot earn above deportation levels of income.
Mrs May can’t blame the officials – they were simply carrying out her orders.
She bears personal responsibility for turning Britain into the “nasty country” and if we lose our nerve over Brexit one wonders if the EU will want to take us back.
Rev Dr John Cameron.
10 Howard Place,
St Andrews.
There can be no more excuses
Sir, – What is the point of Perth and Kinross Council and Police Scotland if they can’t, or won’t, do their jobs?
Our roads and pavements went beyond the point of being properly repairable years ago and are now Second, if not Third, World standard.
A food festival in the High Street on Saturday was colourful and fun, apart from all of the litter bins overflowing.
On Sunday, mayhem reigned for hours, again, at the Isla Road traffic lights in Bridgend, which failed (the chaos compounded by workmen digging up the road at the north end of Perth Bridge … again).
The police arrived, had a look, then left.
The cry of “it’s the cuts” won’t cut it any more.
Common sense, initiative and duty appear to be foreign concepts – literally.
Such squalor is unimaginable in most other European countries – while our environment degrades further and further.
David Roche.
Conachar Court,
Perth.
No faith in climate fight
Sir, – Faith leaders across Scotland have urged the Scottish Parliament to pass a “strong and ambitious Climate Change Act” to save the world’s poorest people from further devastation.
I think they will need divine intervention since Scotland has a miniscule 0.13% of global emissions.
Only a handful of countries have legally-binding Climate Change Acts – the other 190 only made promises.
These faith leaders need to get out of their cloisters and see the world as it is not what they want it to be.
A good start would be to China with 28% of global emissions and India with 6% and both are rapidly increasing their emissions.
No legally-binding Climate Change Acts for them.
America, with 16% of global emissions, refused to sign the Paris Agreement but it has dramatically reduced emissions by using shale gas instead of coal.
Meanwhile the rest of the world burns fossil fuels.
Clark Cross.
138 Springfield Road, Linlithgow.
A lesson on how to run a country
Sir, – Taking the country to war is always a good way for a weak and wobbly leader to look strong and stable.
The pretext for the invasion of a sovereign nation lies in claims their president has used chemical weapons on his own people.
The only proof the British public has for this violation by Assad was some “white helmets” grabbing startled kids off the street and hosing them down with cold water.
Then there is always the (secret) intelligence report that the PM tells us she has.
Normally the public would be inclined to accept the word of their PM standing up and speaking in Parliament since it is, after all, a court of law.
Sadly, however, most MPs in Westminster are now seen in the eyes of the general public as strangers to the truth.
And what of politics in the devolved parliaments? Are we doing any better?
We had the Scottish Labour conference in Dundee; the least said about that the better, although it was held in the right place, the home of the Dandy, the Beano and other well-known comics.
We also had the Scottish Liberal Democrats conference in Aviemore, with their leader Willie Rennie doing his wee moan with no new policies and no new ideas.
If you really want to see how to run a country and do politics, come along to the SNP conference in June.
I guarantee you will see nothing weak or wobbly in Oor Nicola’s performance.
Walter Hamilton.
Flat 3, City Park,
City Road,
St Andrews.
