Sir, – Colin Mayall (May 17) is adopting the SNP habit of confusing conjecture with reality.
No comprehensive case has yet been made by the SNP to show how the people of Scotland would be better off if Scotland became an independent country.
The SNP simply trades upon emotional argument, false grievances and the maudlin reminders of long-past historical events.
Unless it is planned to nationalise the whisky industry, export figures are not relevant to fiscal management.
The value of export sales translates into profits for the owners of Scotland’s distilleries and some of them are multi-national companies.
The benefit to an independent Scottish treasury would then be the corporation tax to be levied on the net profits, and we already know how adept multi-nationals are at tax minimisation.
We have already heard the SNP falsehoods concerning Scotland’s oil, when in fact the oil belonged to the companies extracting it under licence.
Let us not, please, make the same mistake over Scotland’s whisky.
It would be far more appropriate for the SNP to start working with the UK Government to publicise itself as being a unique part of the UK, with all the benefits to private investors of stable government, an economy large enough to be resilient in hard times, and a well-educated and well-qualified workforce.
What we see is the reverse.
Derek Farmer.
Knightsward Farm,
Anstruther.
Independence is the answer
Sir, – Your correspondent Martin Redfern (May 16) is correct that the Greens want to focus on renewable energy and oppose a cut in air-passenger duty but Westminster elections use the first-past-the-post voting system, not used anywhere else in Europe.
This forces people to vote for parties they do not actually support: tactical voting.
Greens disagree with many SNP policies but personally I would rather have the SNP in charge than the Conservatives who behave like a reverse Robin Hood: stealing from the poor to give to the rich.
Garry Barnett (May 16) has confused the Scottish economy run from London with the economy run from Edinburgh.
Financial decisions made in Scotland will obviously be much better for Scotland than decisions made for us in London where the focus is on London, not Scotland.
The NHS here is controlled by the Scottish Government, but does he seriously believe that Westminster Conservatives will continue to fund our NHS when they have finished destroying the NHS in England?
The only way we can save our NHS for future generations is independence.
Andrew Collins.
Ladyburn House,
Skinners Steps,
Cupar.
Tax cash wasted on handouts
Sir, – SNP supporters claim points for free prescriptions, free bus travel, free tolls, free university education and a council tax freeze.
These help people who could easily afford to pay and create expensive waste.
Free university education now is not affordable. In my class at Grove, Dundee, in 1954 only four qualified for university but now they qualify in droves. Preference is being given to European students before Scottish students and many aspects of further education have been cut.
The SNP promised to abolish rates but have reneged. The rating system is an abomination, with people taxed on the size of their property rather than their income and businesses taxed on the size of their premises instead of their profits.
The SNP have allowed community charge dodgers to get away with it and spent public money revoking a fair system designed to free large council houses for big families.
They have no right to waste money. The money they get from the UK, mostly London, is far more than could ever be collected by taxes in Scotland.
RJ Soutar.
Camperdown Street,
Dundee.
Conservatives in ascendancy
Sir, – The SNP are not the only ones running scared of the Conservatives in north-east Fife (May 17).
As soon as the election was announced, Lib Dems began bombarding residents with leaflets claiming that only they can beat the SNP.
This may have been true in the time of Sir Menzies Campbell when Conservatives were nationally in the doldrums, but as a Conservative councillor who topped the poll in the East Neuk, I am proof that times have most definitely changed.
Momentum is now with Ruth Davidson and the Scottish Conservatives and it is growing.
Since the independence referendum, the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party has established itself as Scotland’s second-largest party, doubling its seats in the 2016 Holyrood election and replacing Labour as the official opposition.
The Lib Dems, by contrast, have seen a steady electoral decline.
Linda Holt.
Dreel House,
Pittenweem.
Young people too malleable
Sir, – SNP MP Angus Robertson seeks to lower the voting age to 16.
This position has been agreed in Scotland and is applicable at all elections with the exception of the Westminister vote. I believe this decision was wrong and was slewed by the political agenda of the majority party.
It was argued that at 16, adolescents are mature enough to express a preference.
Young voters are malleable and not totally cognisant of all the circumstances and are more prone to react to peer pressure and a wish to be in agreement with it.
They can more easily get excited in the euphoria of the moment and be bowled along with it. The SNP have not been slow to take advantage of this.
Youth by its very nature is a period when one is free to experiment, challenge and rebel against authority, indeed harbour thoughts of changing the world.
I would have it no other way, rather I would encourage this aspect of human behaviour, but it must be tempered with responsibility. There are adolescents who are well able to discharge their public duties responsibility, but this is the exception rather than the rule. We must err on the side of the majority.
AG Walker.
Puddledub Cottage,
Guthrie.
Illiteracy is our own fault
Sir, – The increasing level of illiteracy among pupils is surely the fault of teachers, and not that of politicians. Better teacher training is the answer. Parents should also take responsibility.
When I went to school aged five in 1946, I could already read thanks to my mother’s tuition.
Individuals should take responsibility, instead of blaming the system or the state
Malcolm Parkin.
Gamekeepers Road,
Kinnesswood.