Sir, – With the Tory party conference in Manchester under way I believe that Theresa May has made a serious mistake by insisting that the rollout of the highly controversial universal credit will continue.
Even several people in her own party have advised her to put the plans on hold.
Universal credit was the ‘brainchild’ of Ian Duncan Smith whose benefits reform speeches demonised those seeking work as workshy.
It is obvious this has been passed on to job centre staff who treat clients with disdain and contempt.
This is going to cause serious problems for both jobseekers and tenants with private landlords.
Many people claiming this allowance are short of money and often don’t have savings to fall back on.
With claimants having to wait up to six weeks for the first payment, the Government has come up with a plan to offer claimants a loan to be repaid from benefits.
This is not helpful as it is going to encourage people to get into debt.
How is receiving a large lump sum once a month going to work for people who have problems managing money or have addiction issues?
This system is unfair and has been badly thought out.
All Theresa May’s speeches about making this country fairer are simply hot air.
This is an example of neglecting the most needy in society and the Conservatives showing how out of touch they really are with ordinary people.
Gordon Kennedy.117 Simpson Square, Perth.
Living in a post-truth world
Sir, – According to Oxford Dictionary the 2016 word of the year was ‘post- truth’.
It summed up the EU referendum and US election campaigns.
Here in Fife we see its application.
The name of Kathleen Leslie, a former teacher at Woodmill High School, Dunfermline, has been removed by the General Teaching Council (Scotland) from its register of teachers allowed to teach in Scottish schools.
It considered that various distasteful and malicious tweets posted by her during her employment there were incompatible with her dignity, professionalism and responsibility to young people under her care.
Yet Ms Leslie, a Conservative councillor, has just become a member of Fife Council’s Standards Committee, appointed by her fellow Tory councillors.
Just what ethical standards does the Conservative Party think Kathleen Leslie is qualified to protect?
It is entirely possible that, by appointing her to such a committee, neither the Conservative colleagues, nor Kathleen Leslie herself, has a clue about ethical standards in public office.
A post-truth world indeed.
John P Nolan.
29 Morrison Drive,
Dunfermline.
Horrific scenes in Catalonia
Sir, – I watched in horror as the peaceful referendum in Catalonia turned into a bloodbath at the hands of baton-wielding thugs from the Spanish National Guard.
Yes, under Spain’s constitution it may have been illegal to hold a referendum on independence but was this justification for what we saw?
Old and young alike were beaten with heavy truncheons to the detriment of their lives.
Sadly we saw much the same action being taken against the striking miners of North Yorkshire when Thatcher’s bully boys broke up a rally and nearly brought the country to civil war.
Imposing your will on a country’s people is a dictatorship, even if you are a duly elected dictatorship, and mealy mouth words from the Scottish secretary to what we have just witnessed in Catalonia have only served to strengthen the Spanish Government’s hand to further oppress and bully.
Within living memory in the US, it was illegal for black people to gather in protest, yet they gathered and marched in their thousands, behind their leader Martin Luther King, and changed the law.
If you want advanced citizenship, it is not only right but our duty to question our leaders.
Who would today dispute that Black Americans then had that right?
And that is why I support independence for Scotland; when an elected body denies people’s rights for a change, the people should have the opportunity of kicking them out of office.
I can only hope that the European leaders can knock heads together and a peaceful outcome can be found in Catalonia and Spain.
As for Scotland, if the entrenched position of the Unionist parties at Westminster continue to deny Scotland a voice in Europe, there can be only one outcome –another referendum on Scottish independence.
Walter Hamilton.
Flat 3 City Park,
St Andrews.
A predictable intervention
Sir, – While the intervention of Nicola Sturgeon into the Catalan farrago was sadly predictable, the reaction of other public figures in the UK and the coverage by our media was disappointing.
Whatever the merits of Catalan independence, Sunday’s referendum was illegal.
It was also, by every national, European and international standard, unconstitutional.
In fact the SNP’s campaign to take Scotland out of the UK bears no comparison to the unilateral demand by wealthy Barcelona to off-load impoverished Spanish regions such as Extremadura and Andalusia.
The parallel would be Greater London hiving off the North and the Celtic fringe or the Lombard League abandoning the failing Italian south.
Rev Dr John Cameron.
10 Howard Place,
St Andrews.
Ballots must be legal
Sir, – It is easy to see some of the appalling police actions in Catalonia as simply an attack on the ‘right to vote’.
No doubt former Holyrood presiding officer Tricia Marwick witnessed some frightful scenes (as reported in The Courier on October 3).
None of this should blind us to the fact that this right has to take place within a legal framework.
We expect the ballot to be secret, conducted with order and protocol at well equipped polling stations, and the votes to be counted efficiently and impartially.
Above all, perhaps, we expect the votes cast to have a clear outcome – the election of councillors, MSPs and MPs to represent us in a democratic chamber.
In referendums we need to know the preference of the majority, even if we continue to argue about what the result actually means for our lives.
The conduct of the polls should be so watertight they cannot be challenged in the courts.
Whether we like it or not the systems in Catalonia and Scotland are different.
In 2014 a referendum on independence was conducted after an agreement between the Governments in London and Edinburgh.
This ensured that the vote was binary (no third choice on ‘devo-max’), that it had to be held by the end of that year, and that it had to be conducted according to rules laid down by the Electoral Commission.
There was an agreement, too, that both Governments would respect the outcome (whatever that meant).
Over the piece the referendum in Scotland was carried out in a peaceful, fair and democratic manner.
Those who seek independence for Catalonia through the referendum method need to heed that example, despite all the difficulties.
If they don’t there will be no lasting solution to their ambitions.
Bob Taylor.
24 Shiel Court,
Glenrothes.
A convenient bogeyman
Sir, – The Courier reports that Perth and Kinross Council blame ‘Brexit uncertainties’ for cutbacks.
This is based on a shortfall in their funding by some £100 million, yet no explanation for the alleged causal link is provided.
Brexit is a now a fashionable ‘bogeyman’ for politicos and their officials to blame for adverse events that they had evidently not predicted, just as global warming and climate change have come to be blamed for many evils.
In the case of Perth and Kinross Council’s present funding shortfall could it be that overspending on an overambitious and ill-considered scale is, in reality, the true culprit?
Dr Charles Wardrop.
111 Viewlands Road West,
Perth.
