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“Thousands of jobs face the axe and a range of frontline local services reduced or withdrawn as new figures show Scotland’s councils approaching a financial black hole of around £1billion” – Our report on the future of local services provoked a lively debate: The English voters must be quite happy with a their budget to councils being cut by one third because they voted the Tories in again – James Mitchell, Bo’ness The Scottish government will be able to increase revenues by increasing taxation – Scott Skinner, Livingston Why should the taxpayer pay? Cancel Trident – James Cormack The Scottish Government need to be questioned on their choice of spending. Free prescriptions for those of us that can afford to pay is not sustainable. Free Higher Education that benefits middle/ upper income families is a populist policy that needs looking at – Andy Sloman, Symington Free prescriptions mean a healthier nation. It cost around 10% more to collect the money generated by paying for prescriptions. What we save on is having less people going into hospital because of not having had medication – Edward Middlemass, Renfrewshire People are living longer through medical advances and the efforts of the NHS. The governments with their spend now and pay later current account semantics failed to take effective measures to meet the costs of these effects – John Souter Overall the NHS is in no worse shape here than in England, where prescriptions are paid for – Michael Lloyd, Dunbar Join the debate at heraldscotland.com