Sir, – Given that this is the time for new year resolutions, the Scottish Government could take the opportunity to bolster our failing education system and our faltering NHS.
A continuing lack of funding, perennial cut backs, and a paucity in progressive forward planning could be countered by simple yet highly effective measures.
Firstly let us be rid of the unpopular ‘named person’ scheme which has already cost £800,000 in legal fees alone.
We also have the un-selective and costly baby box scheme.
On top of that there is the ever increasing army of spin doctors paid out of the public purse, apparently required to deflect everyday governmental shortcomings.
There are, of course, the many think tanks, often known as quangos, which many believe have become vehicles for politically correct ideals and which translate into practice with unnecessary tinkering in our ever increasing nanny state.
Perhaps we could abandon costly and largely ineffective junket trips, usually to sunny climes, on the dubious premise that we will somehow benefit from these.
Then we could save money on the many failed renewable schemes.
These are simple measures requiring only a modicum of radical thinking, but could represent a start toward a more effective and progressive Scotland – if only our political masters have the courage and determination.
David L Thomson.
24 Laurence Park,
Kinglassie.
Stop appeasing a minority
Sir, – It seems your contributor Jill Stephenson is the latest to fall foul of the ‘keep our Gaelic’ brigade.
I had to rub my eyes to make sure I was reading Bryan Auchterlonie’s letter (December 29) correctly.
Does he really mean if we don’t support and encourage the Gaelic language we are not proud Scots?
I consider myself Scottish and British and have no inclination to learn this Irish imported language and I find nothing to warrant the extra expense in cultivating what he describes rightly as a minority language.
We, in Scotland, may have different laws and religion but that is no reason to appease a minority and pull further away from other parts of the UK who also have their own traditions.
For goodness sake stop blaming Westminster for everything – in these harsh economic times money required to satisfy the very small percentage of Gaelic speakers could be much better spent elsewhere.
Wilma Thom.
55 Callander Drive,
Forfar.
Nationalise the banking system
Sir, – The national debt – the total of all our deficits – is heading for £2 trillion, while consumer debt approaches a similar figure, all of it financed by a banking system that creates the nation’s money supply from thin air by electronic book keeping.
Depositors have not lent the banks this money to pass on as loans, the banks have simply created most of it, and always as debt.
They lend their magic money to whoever wants it, in whatever quantity they choose, and for any purpose their borrower wishes.
No government could hope to control an economy while the money supply is in private hands.
The answer is to nationalise the banking system.
The Government could then issue the money supply, free of debt – and only in relation to the prosperity of the country, using the banks as mere distributors.
If the present system continues, it is logically only a matter of time before we have to default on an interest payment, currently about £1 billion every week, and then fall into the hands of the IMF, to be kicked around and told what to do, just like Greece.
Control of the money supply is the key to our financial salvation.
Malcolm Parkin.
15 Gamekeepers Road,
Kinnesswood,
Kinross.
Community alarm praise
Sir, – I frequently see letters of thanks in your paper, addressed to doctors and nurses and others of the emergency services.
Quite rightly so! I would concur.
But one service not to be overlooked is the community alarm teams.
They do Trojan work helping many people, especially the elderly.
My wife and I have occasion to be thankful to them as on occasions when we have fallen and cannot get up, they have responded as quickly as they possibly could.
Many thanks must go to all of the very dedicated staff.
We would like to wish them all the compliments of the season.
A D Williams.
Flat 20,
Pennycook Court,
Dundee.
Hurtling toward a Brexit crisis
Sir, – Brexit resulted from a dangerous populist and nationalist spasm which produced a narrow referendum vote for an undefined proposition to leave the EU which should have been probed without rupturing our essential trade and political relations.
Sadly Prime Minister Theresa May took a course for which she had no parliamentary or popular mandate, becoming the voice of Ukip and her Tory backwoodsmen and producing the European Union Withdrawal Bill – the worst piece of legislation I can recall.
A responsible leader would have sought to persuade her people to stay in Europe while tackling with extreme urgency the social and economic problems within Britain which led to the narrow referendum result in the industrial graveyards of our towns and cities.
Instead we hurtle toward the emergency exit with no credible plan for the future of our trade or EU co-operation while she ignores the crisis of housing, education, health and inequality which tore apart the fabric of our nation and fed Brexit’s populism.
Rev Dr John Cameron.
10 Howard Place,
St Andrews.
Bring up boys to be men
Sir, – You can always guarantee that our MSPs will jump on any passing politically-correct band- wagon. So, school boys in skirts? Of course.
In Scottish politics and education, adherence to radical gender ideology trumps the well-being of young people.
As soon as T for transgender was added on to the end of LGB, we could be sure that all sense of perspective would be abandoned and dissent crushed.
While parents might discourage their son from going to school in a skirt, for very good reasons, the school will contradict the parents and defend the right of the boy to thus cause himself pain and anguish in the longer term.
Such is the grip that the SNP holds on education, that debate on this issue will be virtually non-existent.
Most MSPs will embrace whatever the tax-payer funded LGBT groups tell them to embrace, and those who privately harbour reservations usually choose cowardice rather than risk their career standing up for children and parents.
As most parents intuitively understand, bringing up girls to be women and boys to be men is important.
That’s not to ascribe strict gender stereotypes, but to value the function of cultural markers that distinguish the sexes (like clothing), thus helping children avoid the dangers of gender confusion.
Lewis Hamilton was vilified for saying that ‘boys don’t wear Princess dresses’.
He has now apologised for his instinctive reaction as an uncle that might just have steered his nephew away from untold problems in the future.
Richard Lucas.
Scottish Family Party,
272 Bath Street,
Glasgow.
Undeserving of a knighthood
Sir, – I am wondering what someone has to do to deserve the accolade of a knighthood?
Does that include seriously letting down students and then suggesting the will of the British people be ignored by wanting a completely unnecessary second referendum on EU membership and suggesting Brexit be cancelled if Britain gets a bad deal?
Have the British establishment learnt nothing from the last year?
Ordinary people voted Leave, not to be racist as some Remainers would have people believe, but to be listened to by a country that is deaf to the beliefs and the needs of few and privileged. Arise Sir Nick Clegg? It should be sit down Nick and be quiet.
Gordon Kennedy.
117 Simpson Square,
Perth.
