Sir, – For the first time the UN relief agency Unicef is launching an emergency appeal inside the UK.
There is a public health crisis, an economic crisis and an environmental crisis, all merging with the unfolding Brexit catastrophe.
This is the result of four decades of gutting the living standards and conditions of working people, to benefit the super-rich.
Thatcher and Reagan began lowering the working conditions in the early 1980s.
Battling inflation was the propaganda and a recession was instigated by raising interest rates. Then rates were lowered for banks, and the central banks could pursue policies which the value of assets would never decrease.
In 2008, when the system collapsed, central banks and governments rescued the financial sector, paid for through wage cuts and decimated public services.
The same has been done in 2020, only the bailout has been bigger and created a record bubble in the stock market.
There is nothing inevitable about extreme poverty under Tory rule. It’s deliberate.
But now the Tories no longer even pretend to follow any rules-based system.
Rights are being ripped up and billions are being given to Tory donors in secret, with no oversight.
Alan Hinnrichs.
2 Gillespie Terrace,
Dundee.
Jenny Hjul won’t convince the people
Sir, – Jenny Hjul needs to do better to convince us our first minister is anything but head and shoulders above Westminster when it comes to communicating the risks and reality of Covid-19.
Of course ultra-unionists like Lord George Foulkes want to silence Nicola Sturgeon – not because of her government’s approach to the pandemic but because her competence exposes the London government for what it is – inept and corrupt.
It has not been “cronies” of Scotland’s first minister who have raked in millions from Westminster PPE contracts, but it is Scotland’s businesses that will suffer from a combination of no-deal Brexit chaos and Covid restrictions.
As Jenny Hjul screams from the extreme about the supposed ‘unfairness’ of the daily Covid broadcasts, the fact remains the people trust their Scottish Government and, more than ever, trust their own ability to do things better.
Kevin Donnelly.
10 Mill Street,
Kirriemuir.
Heartening to know we’ll get the facts
Sir, – With reference to The Courier letters of late and the statements from the first minister and top MSPs and SNP MPs regarding the long-running Brexit negotiations.
It is heartening to know that when we are presented by the SNP with the chance to vote on independence, we will have the opportunity to study the agreed separation agreement, with a full list of all the conditions and their impact, before we vote.
Bill Montgomery.
13 Tullylumb Terace,
Perth.
No such thing as a free lunch
Sir, – Lloyd Melville’s efforts to extol the virtues of the SNP administration (Letters, December 17) relied heavily upon “free” services.
Someone has to pay for them, who might that be?
Hamish Hossick.
76H Strathern Road,
Broughty Ferry.
Electrical energy comes at a cost
Sir, – Good news that the prime minister has green-lighted the construction of the new nuclear power station Sizewell C, but it does not solve the cold equation that the cost of electrical energy is four times that of the same amount of energy from gas. Thus a future of cold homes, sick people and mass fuel poverty remains.
What a policy of building nuclear power stations can ensure is security of supply.
This way we will not need to solve the difficult and expensive problem of mass storage of electrical energy.
Otto Inglis.
Crossgates,
Cowdenbeath.
