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The Herald Scotland
2 days ago
- Politics
- The Herald Scotland
Want to talk about waste, Mr Swinney? Have you got a mirror?
Given the awfulness of the ongoing ferry saga, the state of the Scottish NHS, the cancer waiting times, the demise of the Scottish education system, giving criminals home detention curfew at 15% of their sentence, the disastrous Gender Recognition Reform Bill bill and the failed Named Person Scheme to name but a few, is it not reasonable for John Swinney and his Cabinet to step down and call an election so we can get a government of whatever persuasion that actually wants to improve our services and make Scotland a better place to live? They've been in power for 18 years and they have nothing to be proud of. Jane Lax, Aberlour. • Without wishing to diminish the responsibility of former Dundee University principal Professor Iain Gillespie and his colleagues for the financial failure of Dundee University it was richly ironic to see SNP MSPs on the Education Committee vent their outrage on this individual when the Scottish Government's record on economic rectitude has been abysmal. Pot, kettle comes to mind. Alan Ramage, Edinburgh. Where the focus really is Watching First Minister's Questions on Thursday (June 26) I lost count of the number of times John Swinney said that he and the SNP were "focused" on dealing with the many problems facing their handling of the NHS. He was responding to the latest data on cancer treatment, delayed discharges and the absence of Health Secretary Neil Gray on a trip to Japan. These had prompted multi-party attacks on their abysmal record. His use of that word would be credible only if those hearing it did not know that the SNP only exists to focus on separatism on behalf of those who think it is the solution to all our woes. Mark Openshaw, Aberdeen. Read more letters The Iranian connection The UK Defence Journal reports that dozens of social media accounts pushing for the break-up of the UK disappeared simultaneously on the day Israel bombed Iran's cyber infrastructure ("'Dozens of pro-Indy accounts went offline when Israel bombed Iran'", heraldscotland, June 25). Few will be surprised there. But, even so, it should open a few eyes in the nationalist movement. Perhaps some deep thinking needs to be done by the Scottish nationalists on having Iran as an ally, whether wanted or not. Alexander McKay, Edinburgh. Slim down the civil service Anyone who heard the evasions and prevarications practised by Joe Griffin, the new head of the Scottish civil service, in front of a Holyrood committee this week ("Top civil servant told to 'get on it' after Supreme Court ruling on gender", heraldscotland, June 24) will not be surprised that nothing much of value seems to be achieved by government in Scotland. It is over two months since the Supreme Court ruled that biological sex is the determining factor in definitions of "woman", "man" and "sex". Yet the SNP administration is still unable to implement policy that reflects that judgment because first, according to Mr Griffin, the Justice Department needs to establish a working group to talk about what they should do. Yes, Minister was far ahead of its time in describing this: "when the time is ripe", "in the fullness of time", as Jim Hacker said about implementing a particular policy not to his taste. We know that the SNP regime is dragging its heels on fulfilling the requirements of the Supreme Court decision because its leaders still believe that they were right to impose the Gender Recognition Reform Bill, which was mercifully halted by Westminster. It is not at all reassuring that the already grossly bloated Scottish civil service seeks to obstruct the law by procrastinating. Scotland now has a huge financial black hole. It is time for Holyrood to administer Ozempic to the bureaucracy, to slim it down to its essential functions, and also to bring civil servants back into offices they have avoided for all but one day a week. Jill Stephenson, Edinburgh. The high cost of nuclear waste Your front page headline today ("Nuclear industry says ministers' green energy plans are 'fraud' and will see Scots miss out", The Herald, June 27) does bring to mind the old aphorism that 'it takes one to recognise one'. Those with long memories will recall the promises from the nuclear industry of 'electricity too cheap to meter', of safe disposal of nuclear waste, safety of the entire process and so many more. All of these have failed to come to pass as Windscale, Chernobyl and many smaller events bear witness. The continued costs for future generations of the safe storage of nuclear waste are conveniently forgotten. It hardly behoves an industry with this track record to accuse others of fraud. Dr RM Morris, Ellon. • Today's front page shows the argument about the use of nuclear energy: do we believe the safety assurances made by the Nuclear Industry Association or the warnings that Torness (like Hunterston) is cracked beyond repair and potentially dangerous? The day that the British Government agrees to build a reactor beside the House of Commons is the day I'll accept it is safe. Allan McDougall, Neilston. We need proof of safety Having been raised on the west coast of Cumberland, I remember going to the local farm with our tin can to collect the day's milk. I was surprised to see Archie Rose, the village bobby, supervising the pouring of the day's milk into the farm's drains. Calder Hall, as it was then called [now Sellafield], had had an "incident". My father was not exactly pleased with my story. When I worked in Barrow later in life I became aware of three men of the same age as myself who went to the same school as each other and all had tumours on the brain. Unfortunately two died, one of whom was the former England football captain, Emlyn Hughes. They say there are no hotspots, but I recognise that as a raging inferno. For years it was recognised that pollution from fossil fuel burning was injuring the health of a number of people. Action was not taken until the implications of climate change were realised. I am not prepared to sit back and smile at expansion of nuclear power until a proven secure way is found for disposal of nuclear waste. Andy McAdam, Ayr. Shuffling the problem A simple question for those in charge of Scottish energy policy, and let us assume that the electricity grid will continue to be "national" in the sense that electricity will flow in both directions over the Border. If coal as a source of energy is gone, the opposition to new wind installations is growing in effectiveness, there is no sign of usable tidal power and the Scottish Government has set its face against nuclear generation, has that government invented a clever way of interrogating each electron making its way north to ensure that it was not produced by nuclear means so that it can be sent home? If not, in times of power deficiency in Scotland will we not simply be shuffling the problem off on to our neighbours, and that could never happen. Oh wait, though: was that a truck full of landfill I just saw heading south? Brian Chrystal, Edinburgh. Nuclear is for weapons SO Ed Miliband's 'golden age' of nuclear power awaits us. Well, Keir Starmer is warning us to be ready for war, and we know from Ukraine that nukes are potential war targets. A strike on Torness could, depending on its severity, render much if not most of the Central Belt uninhabitable for many decades. Let's face it; nukes are built to produce plutonium for weapons, with the electricity merely an expensive by-product. In a country with our tidal potential, going down the road preferred by Ed Miliband and the GMB union would be dangerous lunacy. George Morton, Rosyth. Will Scotland be using electricity generated by nuclear power? (Image: PA) Change tack on prostate cancer I note Lauren Del Fabbro's article ("Olympic star Hoy calls for change over NHS prostate cancer tests", The Herald, June 21) regarding an interview with one of the bravest and most noble sporting legends of all time who has been dealt the most devastating hand imaginable, but who being a person with such moral fortitude has again risen to the challenge and has now singlehandedly done more for highlighting the failures of the NHS in the way that they deal with prostate cancer than all of the charities and pressure groups. The NHS tells us that most men who have prostate cancer will have no symptoms. The NHS says that if prostate cancer is caught early 90% of men will have an effective treatment. It does seem to be an absolutely staggering situation the NHS has created in the way it attempts to deal with prostate cancer. The NHS only tells GPs about the NICE referral route for men who have symptoms. The NHS refuses to tell GPs about the referral route for men who have no systems (bearing in mind that most cases of prostate cancer will have no symptoms at first). This route for men without symptoms is called the Prostate Cancer Risk Management Programme (PCRMP). Because of the fact that the NHS fails to provide advice and guidance on the PCRMP referral route, GPs are generally not aware of this mechanism and because of this men are routinely not referred when they should be. This results in men being diagnosed much later on when they come back with symptoms, often leaving men without any curative pathway. It is only following Sir Chris Hoy's harrowing position and because of his legend status that the NHS was forced into doing something. So on December 12, 2024 there was a change put in place to the PCRMP in that the minimum age limit of 50 before men could obtain a PSA test was removed. Hence in 2025 a man of any age who does not have symptoms can ask his GP for a PSA test. So many thanks to Sir Chris Hoy for his incredible courage and his ability to start to make change happen within a body that resists change. The NHS would never have moved without his influence. The next change that needs to happen is that the NHS tells its GPs that there is not just the NICE referral route but the PCRMP referral route for men without symptoms as well and in so doing many prostate cancer will be caught early and men's lives will be saved. Duncan Carins, Ewhurst, Surrey. Trump to a T Today's verse from Scripture in your Family Announcements section (June 27) was from St John chapter 15: 'You are my friends if you do what I command.' I immediately thought of Donald Trump; it seems to sum up his philosophy perfectly. Doug Maughan, Dunblane.
The Herald Scotland
14-06-2025
- Politics
- The Herald Scotland
Cleverly: 'Tory government GRR block shows value of Union'
MSPs passed the Gender Recognition Reform Bill at the end of 2022 by 86 votes to 39 on a cross-party basis. The legislation was intended to speed up and simplify the process for a trans person to obtain a gender recognition certificate and change their legal sex. Under the current system, this takes at least two years, involves a medical diagnosis and is only available from the age of 18. The Holyrood Bill would have reduced the waiting time to six months, scrapped the need for medical diagnosis and lowered the age threshold to 16. After it was passed, the then Scottish Secretary, Alister Jack, used Section 35 to ultimately prevent the Bill from gaining Royal Assent. In his statement to the Commons explaining his reasons, he said the legislation would have a 'serious adverse impact' on, among other things, the operation of UK-wide equality law. Alister Jack (Image: PA) Sir James said: 'I do think that this issue has been a prime example of the importance of the Union, because this issue was clearly spiralling out of control—badly out of control—and down in Westminster, looking at the debate, looking at this information, which was becoming more and more surreal, had it not been that really close working relationship between Alister Jack, the Scottish Conservatives, and the number of people fighting to protect women's rights in Scotland, we in Westminster would not have been able to intervene to try and press the pause and think-about-it button—because that is all we did. 'It was not imposing a Westminster solution on Scotland. It was about pressing the pause button and saying, hang on a second, this just sounds weird to us. You should think again and think more carefully. 'That is what the relationship was. And because of that close working relationship, I think we are now on a road towards a more thoughtful, pragmatic and sustainable solution—one which works for trans people, works for women, whatever sexual orientation—works for gay men. 'I think we can get there, and I genuinely hope we can get there, but we have got to make sure that we do not lose sight of some of the fundamental reasons why a number of us got into politics in the first place, which was to protect the vulnerable, give voice to the voiceless, and make sure that people do not make foolish decisions in the heat of the moment. "I am glad that we in Westminster—Alister Jack in particular—played a small part in helping to inject a little bit of thoughtfulness in this conversation.'
Scotsman
09-06-2025
- Politics
- Scotsman
Too embarrassed to admit they're paid way more than the rest of us
The Scottish Parliament has enjoyed quite a few jaw-dropping moments in its 25-year history. Sign up to our daily newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to Edinburgh News, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... I was in the chamber, reporting for this very newspaper, when Henry McLeish announced his shock resignation as first minister after only a year in post. He had got into a bit of a muddle with his office expenses. A friend of mine disrupted the passage of the controversial Gender Recognition Reform Bill when she raised her skirt in protest, exposing the merkin she had made from scraps in her craft box. And the decision to release the Lockerbie bomber, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, on compassionate grounds led to a special, and very heated, sitting of the Scottish Parliament. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad But nothing had prepared me for Peter Mathieson, principal of Edinburgh University, who appeared in front of Holyrood's education committee last week to explain his plans to make £140 million in cuts to the university's budget – including a £90m saving on salaries. Pressed by Tory MSP Douglas Ross to reveal his own salary, Sir Peter stunned the room when he said he didn't know. 'I don't carry that figure around in my head,' he said. Now, let's pause there for a moment. One of the most prominent people in Scottish civic life, the head of an ancient university with a global reputation, a man responsible for the education of nearly 50,000 students a year, doesn't know how much he earns. Douglas Ross came to his rescue, pointing out to the hapless principal that his salary, including pension benefits, is about £418,000 year. He could also have mentioned Sir Peter's four-storey townhouse, paid for by the university, and various other perks, including an annual allowance for his energy bills and for entertaining. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Before his career as a university administrator, Sir Peter was a distinguished medical researcher who focused on autoimmune renal diseases – a profession which surely requires a keen eye for detail. How can he not know how much he earns? And I bet my annual state pension (£11,973 for 2024/25) that if you stopped ten people at random on Princes Street and asked them what they earned last year, all ten would be able to tell you, almost to the penny. In the real world, people are struggling to pay their own energy bills, make their mortgage or rental payments every month and keep the weekly supermarket shop on budget. We have to know exactly how much we earn, because every pound matters. Sir Peter Mathieson personifies the social divide in this country, where a small but very influential group of people are so divorced from real life that they don't need to know how much they earn, they just know it's a lot more than the rest of us. And many of them, like Sir Peter, are public servants – their inflated salaries paid for by the rest of us. NHS bosses with six-figure pay packets and gold-plated pensions. Quango chiefs on more than £300,000 annually. Even backbench MSPs earn £74,500 a year. Meanwhile, a social care worker is lucky if she earns more than £20,000. I don't think Sir Peter 'forgot' how much he earned. I think he was too embarrassed to publicly admit that he is paid way over the odds.
Scotsman
31-05-2025
- Politics
- Scotsman
Why thousands of Scots support Reform (and it's not because they're racist)
Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... There have been many moments of parliamentary pantomime in Holyrood since 1999. Only two days ago, a growling Douglas Ross MSP was thrown out of the chamber for talking over John Swinney at the weekly session of First Minister's Questions. And who can forget the sight of women's rights campaigner Elaine Miller who, from her vantage point in the public gallery, lifted her skirt to expose her merkin to show her disgust at the MSPs' decision to pass the Gender Recognition Reform Bill? Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad By Elaine's admittedly high standards – she is a part-time stand-up comic after all – Wednesday's urgent question by Patrick Harvie was pretty tame. There were no gasps of horror as the co-leader of the Scottish Greens got to his feet, at least none that were audible. Scottish Green MSPs Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater had urgent concerns about the Scottish Parliament's 'facilities' this week (Picture: Jeff J Mitchell) | Getty Images 'Extremist fringe' During the 15-minute debate that ensued, no MSP or disgruntled observer exposed bare flesh. No voices were raised in anger. No one was banished from the chamber. But it was a farce all the same, because Harvie's coy yet 'urgent' question was about the use of the parliament's 'facilities' by MSPs and staff. For facilities, read toilets. His concern centred round a recent edict by the parliament's Corporate Body which declared that, for the foreseeable future, 'facilities' designated as male or female will be based on 'biological sex'. There will also be additional gender-neutral 'facilities' for those MSPs, staff and public who identify as transgender or non-binary. A sensible move one might think, following the recent Supreme Court ruling on the definition of a woman. But Harvie was having none of it, getting up on his high horse to compare the Corporate Body – made up of the Presiding Officer and four MSPs, including his Scottish Green colleague Maggie Chapman – to the 'extremist fringe of the United States Republican Party'. A tad hyperbolic, even for him. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad A handful of equally outraged MSPs chipped in, with Alex-Cole Hamilton, leader of the Lib Dems no less, demanding that no one should be asked to show their birth certificate before spending a penny. Much to my surprise, Lorna Slater, a former government minister, revealed there is a lively internet conspiracy that she is a trans woman and asked if she will require a medical examination prior to using a toilet. Education, health, cost of living Veteran MSP Christine Grahame, who was responding on behalf of the Corporate Body, kept her cool in the face of such daft questions, but an exasperated Russell Findlay took to his feet to express his impatience about this 'farcical waste of time'. The Tory leader said: 'The people of Scotland expect politicians to focus on what matters – rising household bills, their children's education, getting a general practitioner appointment, fixing the roads and keeping communities safe, yet the priority for out-of-touch SNP, Labour, Lib Dem and Green MSPs is an urgent debate about the Holyrood toilets.' If the people of Scotland had been watching Scottish Parliament TV instead of getting on with their lives, you might have heard a resounding cheer across the country at Findlay's intervention. Harvie's urgent question may have only taken up 15 minutes of parliamentary time, but it was a telling snapshot of Scotland's political class which exposed the gulf between them and the rest of us. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The cultural divide between MSPs with their lanyards and pet causes and voters struggling to cope with the economic and social upheaval of the last decade could not be more stark than it was on Wednesday. While MSPs are fretting about where they should pee, we are worrying about whether our granny will get the social care she needs or if our children will get the education they deserve. Little wonder that Nigel Farage and his Reform party have spooked every political leader from John Swinney to Keir Starmer. Farage's popular rhetoric, cynical though it is, appeals to an electorate that is disillusioned with smug politicians so immersed in their private, elitist world that they are blind to what is happening in the real one. 'Litany of failures' The majority of people who will vote Reform at Thursday's Hamilton by-election are not racists, as some would have us believe. Most will not even have noticed Reform's despicable campaign ad, which crudely argued that the Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar will 'prioritise' Pakistani people. As former Labour MP Tom Harris argued in a newspaper column earlier this week, most voters are 'simply sick of the litany of failures and disappointments which have been served up by successive governments…' He went on: 'Voters don't support Reform because of their policies; they support Reform because it is not one of the old parties.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Scotland's leading election guru, Sir John Curtice, doesn't think that Reform will win. He was reported this week as saying that while it's not impossible, it would be a 'spectacular' result if they managed to pull it off. 'I think even coming second would be quite an achievement,' he said. But he pointed out that Scotland is a different world to the one 12 months ago that saw Scottish Labour pick up 37 seats at the general election. And recent polls suggest that Reform will be the second biggest party at Holyrood after the 2026 election, with 20 per cent of the popular vote. Nearly 60 years ago, another Hamilton by-election heralded a new era in Scottish politics, when Winnie Ewing became only the second SNP MP to win a seat at Westminster. You can trace a clear path from her legendary 1967 victory to the 2014 referendum.
Scotsman
26-05-2025
- Politics
- Scotsman
Why Nigel Farage's journey to becoming Scotland's saviour may start in Hamilton next week
Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Is John Swinney really the safe pair of hands that his coterie make him out to be? Has he really steadied the sinking SNP ship or is it still listing badly, floating aimlessly without an engine or rudder in a sea of public despair? Can Labour's Anas Sarwar convince the Scottish public he should be the next First Minister? Or does he represent not much more than Swinney without the nationalism, offering little real change from the uber-liberal collectivism Holyrood has championed as its reason for being? Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Or has Keir Starmer defined Labour as peddlers of false hope, offering seemingly seductive soundbites as policies – only to break the people's trust by taking unexpected contradictory if not deceitful decisions? And whisper it, could Nigel Farage actually shock the cosy collectivist consensus of Scotland's MacChattering classes by providing a resonating voice to the heartfelt fears and deep concerns of ordinary Scots worried about the state of their country? Nigel Farage aims not be a hammer of the Scots, but their salvation (Picture: Chris J Ratcliffe) | Getty Images The Scottish Parliament by-election for Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse on June 5 is likely to provide some pointers to what we might expect in next year's elections. Hamilton is famous as the constituency where the SNP won a 1967 Westminster by-election – could it repeat the occasion and show both the SNP and Labour have lost the trust of the Scottish people? The idea Swinney represents something a change of direction for the SNP is absurd. It was he who led his party to rejection twice between 2000-2004 over 20 years ago. It was he who, as Education Secretary, presided over a marked decline in standards of attainment. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad It was Swinney who was deputy to Nicola Sturgeon and remained a party cheerleader as Humza Yousaf brought open ridicule on the SNP. It was Swinney who backed all those failed attempts to have another independence referendum, Swinney who supported the highly divisive Gender Recognition Reform Bill that undermined women's rights and Swinney who stands for the higher taxes that drive people to work outside Scotland (including many of his own civil servants). Swinney is no safe pair of hands; his default judgment has been to defend the many calamities caused by SNP incompetence and arrogance, and putting independence before everything else. And his poor decision-making continues. If Swinney thought the way to demonise Reform UK was to hold a 'summit' at the taxpayers' expense then any prudent judgment he may have had has completely deserted him. Why spend £10,213 – including £4,000 on the hire of Merchants House of Glasgow, £4,000 on audio-visual and £1,000 on catering and drinks – when there are parliamentary or government rooms available to the First Minister? Was the use of publicly owned facilities considered ultra vires for such politicking? If so, why did Swinney as the host, or the other parties involved not pick up the tab for the expense? As if to endorse the idea that Sarwar's judgment is no better than Swinney's, he attended that Punch and Judy summit but now faces the likely ignominy of his Labour nominee for Hamilton coming behind the Reform UK and SNP candidates. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad As an alternative to Swinney, Sarwar presents himself as representative of change – but his top brass in London, be it Starmer or Chancellor Rachel Reeves, have done everything in their power to dissuade the Scottish people of this claim. Over the last ten months, Starmer's government has raised taxes on working people and removed the winter fuel allowance from ten million pensioners when it promised explicitly not to introduce either of those measures. After campaigning previously in support of Waspi women (including her mother), the Chancellor announced there would be no funds provided to compensate them. The Starmer government said it would reset the EU relationship but has in fact surrendered our sovereignty to make our own tighter laws on animal welfare. It's offering to subsidise the university education of the German middle classes; continue the free-for-all enjoyed by French boats in our fishing grounds; and make it possible for Bulgarian youths to forego their minimum wage of £3 per hour in return for £12 an hour in the UK. Meanwhile he has signed over the Chagos islands to Mauritius and will pay them up to £30bn for the privilege. It does not matter that Sarwar might be opposed to some or all of those decisions, his problem is Labour has shown that, when in power, it is prepared without shame to ditch campaign promises and abandon its electors. After witnessing the behaviour of Labour ministers under Starmer why should Sarwar – who even supported many of the policies of Sturgeon and Yousaf as well as Swinney – be believed as an agent of change? Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Being a little more competent without doing things differently is not going to move the dials at Holyrood, or in our schools and hospitals or make ScotRail run on time. No wonder then that Scots are warming to the messages being put out by Reform UK. Its pledges to stop net zero defenestrating our remaining industries, to drill baby drill, to take control of our borders away from the European Court of Human Rights, to restore the winter fuel allowance, to end the two-child benefits cap, to revive our coastal fisheries, and to defend our sovereign law-making in preference to EU technocrats throwing grit in the gears of prosperity are proving popular over the stale porridge offered by Holyrood and Farage is rated as more likely to deliver on his word. Farage does not threaten to be a hammer of the Scots, he aims to be the salvation of the Scots, releasing the country from its torpor and needless division. A good result for his party at Hamilton could yet change the direction of Holyrood, delivering it from the disappointment and embarrassment it has become for far too many.
