DEAR Keith Starsmeare,

Your patronising epistle to the older and middle-aged residents of Scotland (Website comments, Mar 22) was wrong on so many counts, it is hard to list them all. For starters, progressive change is to be welcomed by all, but regressive change is simply that – regressive – and that is what the Gender Recognition Reform Bill is, a totally regressive piece of proposed legislation, pandering to gender stereotypes that are so outdated as to be morally dubious.

Secondly, no-one has ever suggested oppressing anyone, except the totalitarian “trans” activists, who are as regressive as it is possible to be without falling off the edge of the world. Thirdly, using the terms “Boomers” and “Gen Xers” is patronising and insulting. The first group are people who were born after WW2 and who – although they saw the arrival of the National Health Service, of student grants etc – generally speaking grew up in much poorer circumstances than our present generation of young people. They understand that you cannot have it all, as do the Gen Xers.

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No, we do not want an intolerant, backward-looking Scotland, which is why many of us are opposed to the totalitarian propensities of the queer theory proponents. We do not have the numbers? Really? You believe you are in the ascendancy? Really? You believe, like your former leader does, apparently, that the Scottish population is in step with the “trans” movement and the GRR Bill?

Like so many, you make the cardinal error of believing that youth is forever, that you are Peter Pan personified. Reality eventually intrudes into all our lives. Old age comes to all in the fullness of time, and with it, hopefully, a modicum of life-experience-based wisdom that enables us to evade the delusions that snake oil salesmen offer.

Lorncal by email

I UNDERSTAND that Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership, which administers social care services, have just made budget cuts of nearly £22 million. The trade unions have warned it will have a devastating impact on service users. Funding for self-directed support, which allows disabled people to organise their own package of care, is to be cut by £2.3m. The cuts could result in 13-month waits for care packages, while there will be no transition funding for children moving into adult services.

The number of home care hours will also be cut to bring in savings of £900,000. A total of 197 full-time-equivalent posts are expected to be lost. Other savings include a reduction in day-care services for older people, fewer care home beds (the very last thing which should be cut) and the de-funding of a service for children of parents with addiction issues.

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Politics is all about political priorities. Scotland’s overall budget is allocated by the Scottish Parliament to local authorities and to bodies like this health and social care partnership. I hope the Glasgow City councillors who voted on this cuts package fully realise what they have done.

I cannot help but contrast these £22m of cuts with the further £21m provided to a certain Port Glasgow ship yard this financial year, bringing the total investment in two as-yet-unfinished ships to more than £300m. The shipbuilders seem to have an instant access account with the Scottish Government – the care-givers of Glasgow not so.

Glenda Burns
Glasgow

JIM Taylor’s letter (Mar 22) on minimum unit pricing (MUP) for alcohol has a couple of flaws, although it concludes well. The study was accepted by The Lancet which is a peer-reviewed journal, meaning that if it had serious weaknesses it would not have been published. Also, his objection to MUP being a “tax” on people who can least afford it surely misses the point that the short-term alternative is to let the harm go on happening.

It’s the long-term solution Jim is right about. Sociologists have long known that the level of alcohol and drug abuse are positively correlated with the level of income inequality, an injustice which the SNP tries to address now and will address after independence. The same problems are also related to “colonial” status, which is more clearly than ever the de facto situation of Scotland since the Supreme Court judgment. A “better society” is indeed the solution to that problem and to many other social ills.

Derek Ball
Bearsden

DEPLETED uranium weapons were used during the war in Iraq. In those areas there has subsequently been an increase in birth deformities and cancers, both in the contemporary generation and beyond: land and water has been toxified. Now the UK Ministry of Defence has stated its intention to supply such weapons to Ukraine. Such statements usually mean that the transfer has already happened. Yet another reason to get out of this stinking “partnership” and strive for Scotland’s independence.

By the way, the statement was made by the UK Minister of Defence, Annabelle Goldie. Yes, that Annabelle Goldie. Need I say more!

Peter Barjonas
Caithness