Enjoying gravy?

passes, university tuition etc are not “free”. They are taxpayer-funded. We can either continue to take advantage of them and pay for them through higher-than-uk taxes or we can contribute to them directly – or a mixture of both.

My own view is that the time is long overdue to consider the introduction of means testing to ensure that these benefits are provided at reduced rates or are “free” only to those who require such provision. Populist parties like the SNP would no doubt baulk at the suggestion. That would be a U-turn too far even for them. But now that Mr Mackay has let the genie of tax increases out of the bottle, is he prepared to go far enough in that direction?

COLIN HAMILTON Braid Hills Avenue, Edinburgh Brian Monteith’s effective demolition of Derek Mackay’s deeply misleading presentation of the latest Scottish budget highlighted just how far the SNP are prepared to go in seeking to imagine and exaggerate differences with the rest of the UK (“Having been in your face, SNP ministers are now in your pocket”, 18 December).

The SNP’S tactics might have worked if their stewardship of Scotland over the last decade had not so clearly demonstrated their shortcomings when it comes to our critical public services. Even the most ardent of nationalists would struggle to put a rosy gloss on the reverses we have seen in education, the shambolic reorganisation of the police, the litany of missed waiting targets in healthcare and various ill-judged policies such as the Named Person Scheme.

To be asked to pay more for the SNP’S failings, while the Scottish economy lags behind where it should be, both stretches the patience and insults the common sense of the Scottish people.

KEITH HOWELL West Linton, Peeblesshire The Scottish economy may be slowing down and some of your regular correspondents may even be slowing down, but one thing that is continuing at full speed is the public sector gravy train. Despite protestations from several sources, including politicians, it continues on its unimpeded way.

Most recently we had the university chancellors’ largesse with its ludicrously generous payments. Now we are told that Kirk Kinnell, one of our senior police officers who faces allegations of criminal conduct, is to retire after 30 years at the age of 50 with a lump sum in the region of £230,000 and an annual pension of £38,000 (your report, 18 December). Is this what the First Minister means by ringfencing the police budget?

Put aside the eyewatering lump sum, a private sector worker wanting to retire at the age of 50 with that level of pension would need to have amassed an annuity of more than £1million! Not too many, I would guess, fall into that bracket.

It must be heartwarming for such private workers to know the extra taxes that many will shortly be paying are being put to such good use.

Can we imagine that former MSP Susan Deacon, the new chairwoman of the Scottish Police Authority, will be any more likely to curb these excesses? We won’t be holding our breath.

DAVID F DONALDSON Lawers Crescent, Polmont