As Scotland continues to suffer from the SNP’s long abuse of power, it can be said that, for now at least, the very concept of openness in government has truly gone down the Swinney.
Keith Howell, West Linton.
• THE lack of accountability from our political leaders is concerning. John Swinney’s reluctance to acknowledge past mistakes undermines public trust in our Government’s integrity. Transparency should be the bedrock of public service, and it is time for our leaders to lead by example.
Passing the buck only deepens the crisis of confidence in our institutions.
Alastair Majury, Dunblane.
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Scotland’s destiny
WITH the re-emergence of a Scottish nationalist cause after centuries of being part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland we Scots have in more recent times experienced a more radical form of politics. The age-old choice of being a Tory, a Socialist, or of Liberal-Democrat persuasion was for some time usurped by the radical politics of the SNP.
Although the concept of creating a regional parliament in Scotland was the brainchild of a group of Labour and Liberal politically-aware students, the forebears of the SNP were quick to seize an opportunity to make their presence felt.
Scotland has not benefited in any way from this quest for independence. Indeed it would be true to say that we Scots have suffered from the SNP’s lack of experience in terms of the economy, foreign affairs, and on a more regional basis health and local government. For a long time this northerly region had been a Labour stronghold, with Liberal outposts.
Surely the current situation cannot be allowed to continue? The SNP is a spent force; the time has come for this northerly part of the UK to return to the political policies of conservatism, socialism or liberalism.
Surely that must be its destiny.
Robert IG Scott, Ceres, Fife.
Crown Office must act soon
WHEN a VAR official takes more than three minutes to make a decision, football supporters suspect that the official, rightly or wrongly, is seeking to justify a preferred outcome.
If it takes more than three years to determine what happened to several hundreds of thousands of pounds of SNP funds, how long will it take to find out what happened to many thousands of millions of pounds of taxpayers’ funds paid via a dubious UK Government VIP Lane, for useless PPE that has since been bonfired? The most enriched complicit are unlikely to be sitting around in Glasgow, or any other UK city, but are probably enjoying cocktails at a sunny beach in an offshore tax haven where bank accounts are not immediately open to the scrutiny of the UK’s police forces.
Come on Police Scotland and Crown Office, get your acts together and bring to a conclusion what increasingly appears, as a fourth year looms, to be a political charade which is not showing Scottish justice in a good light.
Stan Grodynski, Longniddry.
PM complicit in barbarism
DAVID Wilson, recalling two famous experiments, throws some light on how it is possible for good men to do evil things (“In today’s chaotic world, a timely reminder that good people do bad things when they dehumanise others and forget moral duty”, The Herald, December 10). One wonders if anything explains why the good Sir Keir Starmer is able to support and aid the good Joe Biden to enable and, effectively, encourage his Israeli protégé to perpetrate the most unbelievable and savage cruelty upon the unarmed Palestinian population of Gaza. Now assailed by the horror stories from Lebanon, Sudan and Syria, we are not told any more that Israel continues to relentlessly kill Palestinian civilians every day, while reducing more and more of their territory to rubble.
Our Prime Minister has not uttered a word of revulsion at this barbarity or made any attempt to protest against the genocide being enabled by the United States. The genocide of the Palestinian population is an unprecedented crime and as pointless as it is vicious. It is in no way the means to a just solution of the Israel-Palestinian problem. But Sir Keir tolerates the unspeakable and indeed contributes to it with funds and weaponry. Nor has his Labour Party dissociated itself from this barbarism but is also content to be complicit. As far as I know no member, far less a cabinet member, has resigned in horror, or even spoken up in protest.
Ronald MacLean, Beauly.
We must reject Miliband plan
I NOTE with interest your article re Ed Miliband’s proposed renewable energy future (“No blackouts promise from Labour amid Grid greening”, The Herald, December 14). I would argue that that there could be far more effective options for Scotland.
For example, instead of massive intrusive and intermittent energy-producing wind farms with their associated pylons dominating the landscape, Scotland’s vast seabed tidal stream energy could be harvested. The greatest of these resources, at the Pentland Firth, with an estimated 60 gigawatt capacity, has hardly been touched by the existing Meygen project. Far more energy could be extracted, including using tidal bridges linking islands such as Stroma and Swona.
Subsea cables can transport tidal power to cities around the coast. Alternatively, railway cuttings could be used to transport electricity cables rather than using huge pylons (they do this in France) if cables are not to be placed in pipelines and buried.
concerning a probe into Nicola Sturgeon’s conduct towards Alex Salmond. UK Net Zero Secretary Ed Miliband (Image: PA)
Other examples of renewable energy use could see city estuarine sites around Scotland replicate the technology developed at Clydebank to take heat from the sea and develop heat networks in Glasgow. Heat energy development elsewhere in the Central Belt can be expanded using Scotland’s substantial geothermal resources.
All this is whilst not ignoring Scotland’s important water and energy storage potential as seen from the Coire Glas project now under construction. The other five sites identified in Scotland for new reservoirs and pumped storage should be prioritised, rather than building huge unsustainable radiation-emitting batteries as proposed in the Miliband strategy.
Rebuilding National Grid networks was estimated by the UK Government in 2023 to cost multiple billions of pounds. It would take 12 years to build sufficient Grid access to overcome the existing 13-year queue for new wind farms.
Not only do wind farms need Grid access but electric cars need capacity for charging. This calls into question Mr Miliband’s edict for the car industry to increasingly build electric cars when there is no electricity to service them. Similarly, there is no Grid capacity to provide power or fund expensive heat pumps or electric boilers for the 23 million private homes now using gas.
Yet instead of accepting that UK North Sea oil and gas will continue to be needed for some time, using existing workforces and keeping open the strategic Grangemouth refinery, Mr Miliband is opting for long-term imports of foreign gas to benefit the economy of Norway and other countries rather than our own.
The ability of a government to avoid blackouts and keep the lights on is critical. The uncosted Miliband energy plan relies on an undeveloped Grid and wind and solar energy which cannot provide essential energy security.
The Scottish Government must not accept that such an experimental and costly energy plan as dictated by Ed Miliband at Westminster should be imposed on Scotland.
Instead, a properly costed multi-energy resources plan for Scotland with realistic timescales should now be commissioned by Holyrood as fundamental to both Scotland’s – and the UK’s – future energy economic security and prosperity.
Elizabeth Marshall, Edinburgh.