THE dreich weather yesterday matched my mood after a few hours’ canvassing in “Royal” Deeside, which is a strange mix of the very affluent and the very poor – the latter community is usually well hidden, although after the vicissitudes of the oil industry and the pandemic there is now significant unemployment here, and consequent reliance on the various remedies for financial disaster like the well-used local food banks.

What has been particularly depressing is the response from many of those who will vote, or have voted, Tory. The extent of cronyism, financial shenanigans, the loss of so many lives in the badly managed Covid response – and the general malaise surrounding the Westminster government – is shrugged off. For these people, the issue is about the SNP’s use of the taxpayers’ (ie their) money to give to poorer people, who, they maintain, are poor only because they choose to have large families.

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The SNP’s introduction of baby boxes, free school meals, and general “socialist” policies are seen as taking money from those who have “worked hard” to give to the feckless poor, which latter group choose to live off state handouts and refuse to work (in spite of the lack of full-time employment here with a declining oil and gas sector).

The supposed argument that independent Scotland cannot survive financially is easily refuted when we look at small nations like Estonia, but the idea that we should only be looking out for ourselves and that poverty is a lifestyle choice is a disturbing development. Is it because the pandemic has limited social interaction and people are getting their knowledge of wider society from the Daily Mail? And why is the Kirk not making more fuss about a society where people are blamed for their own misfortunes and not helped to develop a meaningful role in society?

After the first lockdown there were all sorts of comments about how we should be kinder to each other and look out for those less fortunate. But now it’s time for us to put our money where our mouths are, there appears to be a significant number who have become more self-absorbed and dare one say selfish, and that is a tragic development for Scottish society.

Dr Mary Brown
Banchory

LOOKING at the west of Scotland region for Holyrood 2021, it just might be that the SNP take all 10 constituency seats, but then again might just be pipped to the post and take eight seats. Either way there will be no SNP list seats, as only 4% would likely be available even for an eight-seat constituency result, both based upon a 36% list turnout for the SNP.

The Greens would appear to be on target for one list seat from 10% unless they can boost their percentage to around 21%, ie, the same as the forecast Conservative list percentage, giving them list seats from 21%, 11%, and 7%, at which point they get three list seats.

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Such a result would be 10 constituency seats for the SNP, two list seats Conservative, two list seats Labour, three list seats Green; or alternatively eight constituency seats SNP, one constituency seat Conservative, one constituency seat Labour, two list seats Conservative, two list seats Labour, three list seats Green.

As always with the D’Hondt system it is the 7% area where the upsets occur, and why 21% and not 10% is where the Green vote needs to be if Scotland is to become a stable, independent EU nation state in relatively short order.

I feel obliged to go for SNP constituency, and Green list for the West of Scotland region, and the thought of Holyrood with an evolved SNP and young and inclusive Green party being the key players, with potentially 13 of the 17 Holyrood seats coming from the West of Scotland region, appears really quite enticing.

Stephen Tingle
Greater Glasgow

SLEAZE, cronyism, dodgy deals, jobs for the boys and who paid for what are all the current headlines from Westminster, begging the question, do we in Scotland want to be part of this?

Amongst all the figures floating around is the revelation that the PM is entitled to an annual allowance of £30,000 (taxpayers’ money) for the upkeep of the PM’s flat. This £30,000 equates to a staggering four times that of the Universal Credit benefit for a couple (both over 25 years old) of just over £7,000 annually! It also equates to 95% of average annual earnings in the UK – earnings that must cover the upkeep of one’s property!

The pandemic has sadly forced many households to focus solely on security of income, keeping the roof over their heads and providing for their families, so it is quite repugnant and offensive to hear the shenanigans of Westminster’s cosmetic refurbishment at staggering costs.

Many households are now dependant on Universal Credit due to the pandemic, yet the Westminster government has refused to make the uplift of £20 per week permanent.

It is staggering, and quite frankly Scotland should not be dragged into such shenanigans. With the Holyrood elections a week away and in light of the above, perhaps the Conservative and Unionist Party leader in Scotland, Douglas Ross MP, may want to consider his position of being part of the Westminster government at the heart of such shenanigans.

Catriona C Clark
Falkirk

PERHAPS the most damming aspect of the “letting the bodies pile up” remark, allegedly made by the Tory clown in Westminster, is that it will come as no surprise to many because he is capable of having said it.

Jane Bullock
Inverness