I’M surely not alone in noticing that on the same day that the UK Government increased the penalty for driving while using a mobile phone to £200 and six penalty points, Loch Lomond & Trossachs National Park (LLTNP), backed by the Scottish Government, introduced a penalty of £500 and a criminal record for people who pitch a tent in the newly created restricted zones.
Has this country not got its priorities completely wrong when someone who pitches a tent responsibly can be fined two and a half times the maximum penalty for an action which is proven to lead to death? The most serious injury I’ve suffered while camping is tripping over a guy rope, yet should I erect a tent, or commit the most heinous of crimes by lying in a sleeping bag, I’ll be treated worse than someone who could kill or injure someone.
LLTNP appear to be running the park as a business and see Scotland’s natural beauty as assets. Were it the Tories who were carrying out this privatisation there would be outrage. It’s a Tory-style operation, to identify something which people enjoy for free and to then engineer a situation whereby you can make them pay.
James Cassidy
Address supplied
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TIME THERESA MAY GOT ON WITH HER DAY JOB
IT is ironic how Theresa May comes to Scotland and tells the Scottish Government to forget about a referendum and get on with the day job.
According to reports it seems that health and policing in England are in a worse state than in Scotland; education in England also has its problems and the Welfare system seems to be a problem without end. So I suggest that May should forget about Brexit for the moment and get on with her pressing day job. There was no time scale set in the EU campaign for when the UK should leave the EU so May should delay invoking Article 50 for at least five years; this would, sadly, delay an immediate independence referendum but it would enable the Tories to get back to the day job of preparing new manifestos of relevance to their local communities for the up-coming council elections instead of their only interest of stopping Scotland taking charge of its own destiny.
So Ms May back to the day job and, as a consequence of delaying Brexit, would it not please you to see Liam Fox and David Davis out of a job?
Tom Rozier Ayr THE Prime Minister was correct when she mentioned that the SNP have ‘tunnel vision’ with regard to independence. This ‘tunnel vision’ has been a millstone round all our necks, whether we acknowledge it or not, regardless of our political choices.
I travel to work on a train that predates the Scottish Parliament by 10 years. My workplace is still not providing the living wage, despite the SNP stating that this should have been paid from October 2016.
Improve transport infrastructure, directly intervene and give us the living wage, work within the existing system and drop the grievance politics.
I desperately want the SNP to do their day job, drop the independence rhetoric and actually use the powers of the Scottish Parliament to make life better for Scotland and all its people.
David Bone
Girvan
INTERESTING Labour PPB on the television last night. Lots of young faces chanting “Together We Are Stronger”, including a medical student (didn’t mention his tuition fees) and an NHS worker (no mention of the mess the English NHS is in).
Is “Together We Are Stronger” the new Better Together?
Given the fact that Scotland is bound “together” with the UK Tories for the next three years at least, and probably the next 13, this seems a very odd view for Labour to take.
Odd indeed when Labour are voting with the Tories to take us out of Europe: why not stronger together in that case?
Cllr Brian Lawson
Renfrewshire Council
JUST watched the Scottish Labour advertisement on the BBC: “Together We’re Stronger.” “Physician heal thyself”?
Jim Clark
Scone
HOWEVER idealistic the PM might be and however much we might sympathise with her views, the fact remains that Scotland needs to rediscover itself before being strong enough to be an equal partner in the United Kingdom.
Perhaps this doesn’t matter to the majority but the truth remains that there is a difference between the two nations and a difference worth cultivating. This is not tribalism, racism or any other “ism”, rather a desire for some of us to develop along our unique way if only we are given the chance to self-govern and prove ourselves capable of taking our rightful place in the world.
Janet Cunningham
Stirling
FOR universal NHS care provision in Scotland, digital EU health card registration, or accreditation similar to USA’s, would ideally complement a digital registration of Scottish Residents. Such registration will be required very soon within the UK, as NHS England becomes even more privatised after Brexit.
Reference to simple Scottish registration based upon Scottish paid taxes, ie, Council Tax and Income Tax paid in Scotland, might be possible.
A more complex registration [system] for those paying other taxes, such as Corporation Tax, elsewhere in the UK, or paying multiple different tax streams to different places over different periods would be required.
An independent Scotland would presumably follow on with such an approach on care provision within Scotland.
Once again, we see that all the 2014 indyref “No Thanks” items of concern should a Yes vote occur, will be needed to deal with Brexit anyway, at least if the UK allows the Scottish NHS to remain a devolved public service.
Stephen Tingle
Via email
IT was the will of the British people to join the EU all those years ago, and the British Government should accept that decision and should not have held another referendum. Why did they? Because circumstances had changed. The Scottish people voted No to independence in 2014, and we wish to have a new independence referendum. Why? Because circumstances have changed. Westminster is saying to Scots that they can’t have a second referendum but Westminster ordered a second referendum on the EU.
Dream on Theresa: I dare you and your Tory/Unionist cabal to deny the Scots a new referendum.
William C McLaughlin
Biggar
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