Derek Mackay, the SNP’s finance minister, thinks if he keeps blaming Scotland’s problems on Brexit they will go away. As he prepares to deliver his budget in the Scottish parliament today, he will be hoping the chaos over Europe will serve as a distraction from his own predicament.
Does Theresa May know something the rest of us don’t? Her breezy confidence that she has a chance of winning the Commons vote on her Brexit deal next Tuesday doesn’t seem to be grounded in reality.
Theresa May is in Scotland today, a whistlestop on her nationwide campaign to try to sell her Brexit deal directly to ordinary voters.
Sir, – With regard to the report in advising that new guidelines have set down the fundamental principles and purposes of sentencing for all offenders in Scottish Courts (“First sentencing guidelines in Scotland’s courts introduced”, Courier, November 26), I just wonder if the judges could perhaps have taken one more very important step by looking at the serving of sentences.
Sir, – I read with interest former Dundee City Council development director Mike Galloway’s defence of “Site Six”, which is otherwise known as that monstrosity being built across from the V&A (“Mastermind defends controversial site six”, Courier, November 21).
Nicola Sturgeon has been in London this week trying to change the course of Brexit. That’s her explanation anyway.
There has not been much good news on the education front in Scotland recently, as even John Swinney, the beleaguered minister responsible, might agree.
Sir, – We are fast becoming a nation of interferers – and often with disastrous consequences.
Monday’s Budget gave Scotland’s government little to go on in terms of blaming Westminster for its own shortcomings.
Sir, – The comments by Tory MSP Michelle Ballantyne defending the Maoist two child limit for people on benefits was not only morally repugnant but factually incorrect (“Tory MSP slammed over ‘archaic’ child comments”, Courier, October 25).