Barnett baloney

Alastair Paisley alleges that the SNP government is not passing the Barnett consequences accruing to Health

and Education on to these services to the extent of £1bn. (Letters, 22 September).

I would like to see the evidence for that. The SNP maintain that they are doing so. It is inconceivable that any Holyrood regime could withhold funding to that extent from what are the two largest spending programmes, with the largest manpower levels – and as Barnett predominantly covers a year’s pay inflation on the same basis as for England, then a great many workers here must be being deprived of their increases.

Against the £1bn he highlights, the examples of alternative spending he mentions are paltry by comparison.

So the question that arises is: Over what period did the £1bn shortfall on health and education occur?

And to what extent have the other smaller services benefitted from that? Because the “spare” money must be getting spent somewhere else.

He should not rely on the propaganda pushed out by the opposition parties, who probably have no idea how Barnett works.

For the umpteenth time we have another letter, this time from Alistair Paisley (Letters, 22 September) displaying ignorance on what is spent on Gaelic.

Mr Paisley writes to perpetuate the myth that £27 million pounds is to be spent on Gaelic signage. The fact is that signage has Gaelic added to it as and when signs need to be replaced.

Gaelic is protected and promoted under legislation covering regional and minority languages, but it is unlikely that the entire budget spent on it reaches £27 million, so to say that such an amount is being spent on signage alone is just plain silly.

It is also sad to read yet another curmudgeonly complaint which fails to recognise the value of protecting an integral part of Scotland’s heritage.