Population fears
The SNP Government seem to think that Scotland’s population increase of 340,000 since 1997 is an achievement (The Scotsman, 20 April). They think that more would be even better.
Have they never heard of sustainability and optimum population? A policy of reckless increase for its own sake is a recipe for overloaded public services, overworked staff, burn-out and falling standards of provision – which is precisely what we have got.
The EU open-doors migration policy has encouraged huge population shifts across Europe. The population of the UK has gone up by 6.5 million since 2001. Some of those migrant workers are employed in our public services, but most are working in hotels, pubs, cafes, taxis, etc.
Their employers are doing well out of the easy availability of cheap labour, but the rest of society are paying the cost in terms of pressure on housing, health services, schools, hospitals, prisons and welfare. Clearly there is a limit to how large a population our public services can cope with. It is surely time the SNP Government recognised that fact.
We used to have industries which required vast armies of workers – ship-building, coalmining, steel-making, etc. But modern hi-tech industries are not like that. Computers and automation have reduced the need for a large workforce; the typing pool with dozens of typists is a thing of the past.
That development is one to be welcomed. We should view a decrease in population not as a cause for alarm but as an opportunity to try to improve the quality of our social provision. A growing population forces us to keep pursuing increased quantity of provision, but improved quality is what raises our standard of living.
Globally, mushrooming populations are a major driver of increasing CO2 emissions and climate change. Every country has a duty to encourage its citizens to adapt to a sustainable way of life, which includes bringing population growth under control. Surely that applies to Scotland as much as to every other country?
LES REID Morton Street, Edinburgh