Sir, – Finance Secretary Derek Mackay read out Nicola Sturgeon’s budget but the hand that authorised it was manipulated by Green MSP Patrick Harvie.
The NHS has a shortage of highly-skilled people, but will doctors and nurses come to Scotland where taxes are higher than in England?
Indeed, will doctors and nurses leave the Scottish NHS?
Will urgently-needed maths teachers come to a higher-taxed Scotland?
Scotland’s SNP squanders £50 million on Prestwick Airport, and failed renewables projects have cost taxpayers over £65m.
Vanity projects such as Police Scotland are gobbling up taxpayers’ money. Amalgamating the British Transport Police north of the border into Police Scotland will be another financial and operational disaster. The budget allocated another £3.5m on international relations, which brings the total to £17.3m in only two years.
Strange how £17.3m over two budgets can be found to self-promote the SNP abroad,whilst local authority services are cut and taxes increased.
No wonder the SNP needs 46 spin doctors costing £4.6m.
Clark Cross.
138 Springfield Rd,
Linlithgow.
Don’t let our post office be closed
Sir, – It was recently reported (The Courier, December 15) that the Blairgowrie Post Office branch is to be relocated to a newsagent on Perth Street. Though at times the current branch could do with more space, it’s been a great location.
The consequence of this move will be less space, and the service in an edge-of-town location.
A consultation will take place in the new year, and only if enough people take part can we prevent Post Office claiming little public opposition to the proposed closure, and hope to prevent an inadequate service as a result of it.
People who do not voice their opposition should not complain when having to wait in the rain, or snow, or in sub-zero temperatures. Or when it’s their mum, or the old fella down the road having to deal with these conditions.
They should not complain when the services they need are no longer available, and so they must travel to Perth or Dundee.
This isn’t only about the customers, or Blairgowrie. It’s also about the treatment of a dedicated bunch of workers.
Apparently the staff who have worked so hard there, and currently working extra hard over the Christmas period, will be made redundant.
It’s nasty. If you don’t complain now, don’t complain when the years of experience of the current team at the branch are no longer available to customers.
Don’t let Post Office tell us nowhere else is available. We have empty shop units in Blairgowrie.
The “counter” branch decision is one that can be changed, even if only for a year.
If the current proposal goes ahead, an inadequate solution isn’t the best they are able to do, it is the best they are willing to do.
Tim Clarke.
12 Bank Street,
Blairgowrie.
Beware Gaelic road signs
Sir, – Road signs are helpful to those motorists who are unfamiliar with the route they should take and it is important that they are easy to understand.
Some time ago I was driving in Wales and came upon a minor accident. The driver of one of the vehicles explained he was a tourist unfamiliar with the area and was distracted trying to understand the Welsh road signs.
This is one of the factors to consider before we opt for Gaelic road signs.
Garry Barnett.
The Garden House,
Campsie Hill,
Guildtown,
Perth.
Anger at garden waste fee
Sir, – Having read in The Courier (December 11) that Perth and Kinross Council are proposing to charge £25 per year for the collection of garden waste, I am filled with total dismay and anger.
Does our council tax not go towards this? If not, then perhaps our Tory-led council should look at a number of things: first, the over-the-top Christmas lights switch-on; second, the refurbishment of the theatre, and third, the years of costly delay on doing anything with the former St Paul’s Church and city hall.
Money spent, particularly on the first two, could have been diverted to cover shortfall on garden waste disposal. Also, the gardening season is short – on average March-October – so why charge us for a whole year?
I have a feeling some householders may put garden waste in with the non-recyclable stuff in the green bin, or have the occasional bonfire, to avoid paying this punitive fee.
Alister Y. Allan.
13 Castle View,
Letham,
Perth.
What’s really in a tax rate?
Sir, – Malcolm Parkin’s assertion (Letters, December 18) that Scotland (a country with powers to set its own income tax rates and bands) now has, to its detriment, “different taxation rates” got me thinking – different from what or whom?
He doesn’t say, but surely comparison with all countries would throw up differentials? For sure, I cannot imagine they are the same as any other country.
But this is no different from the previous UK position, who also had different income tax rates and bands from every other country but somehow not to the detriment of the UK or even to any of the other countries in the comparison.
I can’t really see the problem then – unless we all have it.
Unless Mr Parkin can identify a country with the same rates and bands, we must all, by definition, have different ones. Just as we had when we shared this power at UK level.
Maybe what he is trying to say is that until every nation mimics precisely the taxation policy of one part of the UK, everyone is doomed – except them.
Gordon Campbell.
59 Garvock Hill,
Dunfermline.
Homeless before refugees
Sir, – Now that the SNP Government has found housing for 2,000 refugees, will they be so good to find housing for our homeless Scots?
When I asked the UK Government about building modern prefabs to house our homeless people they said there was no money?
If we have no money how is it possible that we can give the rest of the world £15 billion of our tax money away every single year?.
Just who are our MPs representing? Certainly not the working people of the UK. No one represents us.
John G Phimister.
63 St Clair St,
Kirkcaldy.
Do as I say, not as I do?
Sir, – Nicola Sturgeon tells us “Scotland is an open… country and… welcoming the 2,000th Syrian refugee to our country is testament to that”.
Fair enough, maybe. But what a shame Ms Sturgeon didn’t set us all a shining example by living up to her promise, which at the time appeared heartfelt, by welcoming a Syrian family into either her own or her official home.
Martin Redfern.
1 Woodcroft Road,
Edinburgh.
Dundee bus service
Sir, – I find the Dundee bus service excellent, but that may be because I live on the Ninewells route. I have been shocked how infrequent the services are in Ardler, for example.
Another issue is times: both the 22 and the 73 go from city centre to Ninewells, much of it on the same route, but they run almost simultaneously. In the evenings this means there are two buses almost together and then nothing for half an hour.
Rather frustrating on a cold night.
An example of naive Thatcher-style ‘competition’ no doubt; and certainly not, as Cllr Richard McCready points out (The Courier, December 15) in the customer’s interest.
Antony Black.
79 Blackness Ave,
Dundee.
