Letters: I am proud to dwell in Scotland, a rustic that values decency

In April, MPs have been awarded a pay rise of two.7 per cent, in step with different public sector employees. This may take their annual wage to greater than £84,000. Ignore the truth that lots of them have second jobs and distinction that with pensioners on a 3.1% improve after the triple lock was damaged. At most, they’re given £9,600 a 12 months to dwell on, however many obtain much less due to their Nationwide Insurance coverage document. They want all of the freebies they’ll get, and Scotland has a much more beneficiant nature than rUK.

Boris Johnson’s Authorities could also be summed up by his selection of wallpaper: initially dazzling, costly however quickly decaying and incapable of staying upright.

Frances Scott, Edinburgh.

TAXPAYERS WILL HAVE TO DIG DEEP

OUR Finance Secretary should be delighted that, with Aslef settling for a 5 per cent pay rise (“Ministers braced for backlash as prepare drivers provided 5% rise”, The Herald, June 19), she now has a good suggestion of the amount of cash that will likely be required to pay the remainder of the Scottish public service servants and workers, though it might rise a bit extra after an settlement is settled with the RMT. She can even have a significantly better thought of the shortfall within the Scottish Authorities’s funds and the way a lot chopping of jobs and spending will likely be required within the close to future.

I’m positive that the hard-working Scottish taxpayers, businessmen and employees will likely be trying ahead to paying for all of it.

Peter Wright, West Kilbride.

* HOW predictable that the SNP has capitulated by rising its earlier “ultimate” provide to offer Aslef a 5% improve – no matter the decrease ranges of different present pay rises provided and certainly total affordability.

Equally predictable is that the union waited till ScotRail was below Authorities “management” earlier than making its calls for – in full information that the earlier possession would by no means have weakly caved in to its calls for in such a fashion as hasthe SNP.

Robin McNaught, Bridge of Weir.

STURGEON HAS RUN OUT OF LEEWAY

NICOLA Sturgeon’s Authorities has caved in to a excessive pay settlement with extras for the prepare drivers. For years Ms Sturgeon has lambasted opposition politicians calling for extra money for companies by asking the place is that this coming from, or what are you prepared to chop? The boot is now on the opposite foot and never solely are we in for a wave of excessive pay claims however there’s already a looming funds deficit of round £3.5 billion.

The SNP must have some fairly strong and sensible concepts about how all this cash is to be funded in its upcoming Indyref2 paperwork or it should fail even earlier than the authorized arguments are aired. There isn’t a leeway for elevating taxes.

At present the picture of the Scottish Authorities is certainly one of incomprehensible choices, enormous expenditure on pointless “freebies” and costly failures such because the ferries and census knowledge. It’s extremely unlikely that Ms Sturgeon and her Cupboard have the power to vary this path of journey with or with out independence.

Dr Gerald Edwards, Glasgow.

RULED BY THE MINORITY

THERE’S little question David J Crawford (Letters, June 10) has some extent when suggesting the PM ought to go and highlights the issue that solely a sure share of the inhabitants must vote in your favour for a celebration to achieve energy.

What he appears to be unable to recognise is that the state of affairs right here in Scotland is even worse, with a decrease variety of votes preserving a minority authorities in energy ably assisted by two characters who’ve fewer votes than nearly everybody

We’ll quickly have extra cycle lanes than correct roads…

John Gilligan, Ayr.

* LEAH Gunn Barrett (Letters, June 10) advises that “Scotland must seize the closest lifeboat”. Whereas not disagreeing along with her different feedback (although the issue of inflation is maybe extra sophisticated than she appears to recommend), I might be fearful about the place we’d truly discover a lifeboat given the SNP’s document on shipbuilding.

Brian Chrystal, Edinburgh.

RUSSIA’S WAR CRIME AGAINST THE PLANET

SORRY, however it’s poor style to conflate shortages of some processed meals in prosperous international locations with the looming disaster created by Russia’s blockade of Ukrainian ports (“World meals stress begins to chunk”, The Herald, June 10).

You report that there’s a scarcity of lettuce in Australia, that McDonald’s ran low on chips in Japan in January, and that tomato ketchup manufacturing might be affected by declining yields of tomatoes “this century”. I hope most of us may survive with much less lettuce, fewer chips and a lowered ration of ketchup.

However for a lot of tens of millions all over the world, the Russian blockade implies that they may fall from starvation into hunger. Russia’s motion is brutal and inhumane; it’s a conflict crime dedicated towards essentially the most susceptible on our planet. If Russia persists, I hope the remainder of the nations of the world deal with it because the pariah state its motion warrants.

Doug Maughan, Dunblane.

BAMBOOZLED BY A FARE DEAL

WELCOME to Scotland and what some guests may see as The Nice Prepare Theft.

A pal from New Zealand purchased an off-peak day return ticket from Glasgow to Edinburgh on-line. His supposed outward journey was cancelled, however after a wonderful day within the capital and searching ahead to a good higher one in Glasgow, we stopped off for refreshments within the revamped Ryrie’s Bar at Haymarket. I knew off-peak meant we could not journey again earlier than 18:15 so we waited for the 19:45.

Shortly earlier than we arrived in Glasgow the prepare’s ticket inspector knowledgeable my pal he had truly purchased a Tremendous Off Peak return. Wow, I believed, that is higher than mine. Sadly not. It meant he should not have boarded a prepare earlier than 20:00.

The digital limitations at Haymarket hadn’t raised the alarm. However there was no reasoning with the inspector. It value an additional £14, on prime of the unique £10.40.

Corporations like ScotRail can bamboozle and confuse with presents, costs, and tickets. One phrase could make an excellent distinction in what you find yourself paying.

Andy Stenton, Glasgow.

* I THINK Transport Minister Jenny Gilruth is being unfairly criticised for suggesting supporters “want to stroll again to town centre” after matches on the nationwide stadium (“Minister below hearth for telling match followers ‘to stroll’ in rail row”, The Herald, June 9). Within the absence of an enough provide of trains, a scarcity of seaworthy ferries and a historical past of avalanches on a crumbling and pitted community of public roads, Shanks’s pony is by far the shrewdest choice in Scotland.

Duncan Graham, Stirling.

LOSS OF BUS SERVICE A BODY BLOW

BEITH, a perfect commuter city, lies on the principle highway from Glasgow to Irvine, and is about to lose all the bus service on this route.

This has been a much-travelled and glorious route for a public bus service for a few years, regardless of plenty of tinkering lastly leaving it at the moment with a much-diminished service. Partially, Covid did go away the service with a extreme drop in passengers utilizing the service, as occurred throughout Scotland. Nevertheless the service additionally acts because the hyperlink to our nearest prepare station in Glengarnock, roughly two miles away, not a straightforward stroll by open countryside in poor climate, water lengthy gone below the bridge; Beith as soon as had two stations.

Our native hospital is Crosshouse simply outdoors Kilmarnock, and there’s additionally an related unit in Irvine. Transport by bus will likely be just about misplaced to each: Crosshouse is already a tough journey. I’ll at this level add that Beith secondary college pupils, who all attend Garnock Campus in Glengarnock, will likely be obliged so as to add this two-mile stroll on to their college day, because the bus that many use will not be an choice, except they coax Maw or Paw to run them there as soon as the bus route has gone. Some mother and father at the moment do, because the fenced-off pavement acts as a goal for various drivers, going by the numerous broken sections of “strong” fencing below fixed assault, and subsequent restore.

Does anybody desire a soon-to-be-redundant bus cross?

George Dale, Beith.

I’VE SPENT ENOUGH ON THE ROYALS

I REFER to Kara Kennedy’s article on Glasgow’s lack of jubilee celebrations (“Queen royally snubbed by Glasgow – what a disgrace”, The Herald, June 10).

I reckon I have been contributing, by taxation, to the royal household’s opulent life-style for about 48 years now; I do not suppose this can be a trigger for celebrations.

Allan McDougall, Neilston.

• NEIL Bowman and his declare of “Nazi extra” (Letters, June 7) couldn’t be farther from the reality. As one who was there, on the Mall, on June 2, I can testify to Elizabeth Mueller’s cheering crowds (Letters, June 8); what a buzz they offered, too. This was British custom at its easiest.

Brian D Henderson, Glasgow.

THE BAD POETS SOCIETY

R RUSSELL Smith’s contribution on the outpourings of William Topaz Mc Gonagall (Letters, June 10) introduced again reminiscences of a lecture by a member of workers of Glasgow’s Mitchell Library, who demonstrated that McGonagall wrote on issues rural, too: “As I cam’ doon the Dundee Highway, I noticed a coo, a bull b’ Goad”, and “Upon a hill I noticed a coo, if it was there, it is no there noo”.

Within the mid-Seventies, after all, the Herald Diary, edited by Murray Ritchie, held a nasty poetry competitors. The winner, Walter McCorrisken, aka the bard of Renfrew, wrote: “Expensive Sir/ By no means chunk your fingernails/It makes your fingers lumpy/By no means chunk your fingernails/ Yours sincerely/ Stumpy.”

McCorrisken duly declared himself to be Scotland’s worst poet.

David Miller, Milngavie.

• FURTHER to R Russell Smith’s letter, I agree point out ought to have been made from William McGonagall when “cherishing the glories of Scottish literature”.

I’ve Burns’ and McGonagall’s books of poetry aspect by aspect in my bookcase, and am instructing my grandchildren and great-grandchildren that Scotland has the excellence of manufacturing the most effective and the worst on the planet – no different nation can lay declare to each.

Mary Duncan, East Kilbride.