Today’s letters to The Courier.
Sir, The idea of 50% of school leavers proceeding to university may be a fine objective but only if higher education establishments can relate degree courses to career opportunities.
I cannot understand why we turn away four out of five qualified applicants for medicine and dentistry yet we depend on about 40% foreign graduates to fill NHS jobs.
It is said there are unemployed graduates even in science and engineering and that the checkout operator in the supermarket may well have a degree in something. There does not seem to be a scarcity of graduates in economics recently I met one with a BSc. I had always thought of economics at best as a pseudoscience rather like homeopathy and chiropractic but apparently it is a route into politics.
The 50% graduate number comes from government. Why do we not insist that if a graduate seriously seeks appropriate employment but cannot be placed then the time spent ‘parked’ will be rewarded by remitting tuition fee repayment for that time?
(Dr) Andrew Gunn.Kirkden House,Letham, Angus
Executive not the Government
Sir, It really gets up my nose that SNP people keep referring to the Scottish Executive as the Scottish Government. It isn’t. It’s only a fraction of the government of Scotland.
Calling the Executive the ‘Scottish Government’ was yet another fly move by Alex Salmond on his gigantic ego trip through life.
Look up the internet and you will find Wikipedia telling you that only the British, or UK Government can authorise a change in the name.
It is illegal to call it anything else but the Scottish Executive. It was Henry McLeish who first thought up the idea. Should have stuck to football, Henry.
If you go a little further you will find what is reserved to the UK Government is just about everything. Most of the important things anyway.
The way Alex Salmond talks you would think Scotland was not just the best small country in the world, but the biggest as well!
He always gets on about how well off we could be with Scottish oil. But it’s UK oil. He knows that.
Pray tell me Alex, what would be your saviour of Scotland if there was no oil? Fish?
Perhaps the Europeans will do the same to your oil as they did to your fish. Ever thought of that?
K. J. MacDougall.3 Logie Avenue,Dundee.
Real boss Scottish Tories
Sir, ‘New leader, same old Tories’ might well have been your headline (November 10).
No sooner is new Tory Leader Ruth Davidson in post than their most prominent supporter, QC Paul McBride, quits the party stating: ”The Scottish Tories are no friends of the people of Scotland.”
Then donor John McGlynn hints his funding may soon dry up.
On top of all that, Ruth’s own MSPs start as they mean to go on by refusing to take up posts in her cabinet reshuffle.
All this brouhaha should not surprise us.
So uninspired were the membership of the Conservatives by the prospect of any of the potential candidates leading their party, that barely half of them even voted.
Then, having garnered barely half the votes of those who did, Ruth’s first task was not to meet with her membership or her fellow MSPs but to rush down to visit David Cameron, the real boss of the Scottish Tories.
It appears that, although Murdo Fraser offered the best hope for their future, his party shirked the tackle and it is now back to the business of deferring to London on everything.
It will be interesting to see how the future pans out and also where Dundee’s Tory politicians stand.
Are they content to see every decision run by London for approval or do they also hanker for the independence and fresh start that was offered by Murdo?
Kevin Cordell.2 Nevis Place,Broughty Ferry,Dundee.
Question of discrimination
Sir, In expressing that the SNP are anti-English I wonder what Labour MP Jim McGovern’s views are when it comes to devolving corporation tax to the Scottish Parliament?
It has been argued that to revive a flagging Scottish economy it is necessary for Scotland to have more fiscal powers to set a competitive tax regime in comparison to Ireland, Eastern European countries and Asia in order to attract vital inward investment, so creating large numbers of jobs.
This is the same argument that Northern Ireland have successfully argued with the Treasury in London in order for the Irish to be given future powers over corporation tax.
However, it has been revealed to a Scottish parliamentary committee by an economic expert who helped formulate Northern Ireland’s case that he has been told that the coalition government at Westminster will not ”under any circumstances” devolve corporation tax powers to Scotland.
So given that Jim McGovern is an expert on all forms of racism would Dundee West’s representative at Westminster be brave enough to stand up in the House of Commons and raise the question of why the Coalition government are actively discriminating against Scots on economic grounds?
Malcolm McCandless.40 Muirfield Crescent,Dundee.
Get involved: to have your say on these or any other topics, email your letter to letters@thecourier.co.uk or send to Letters Editor, The Courier, 80 Kingsway East, Dundee DD4 8SL.